No one in the Braves organization has gone so far as to suggest their revamped bullpen will overwhelm like last year’s Kansas City ’pen, which featured a power-armed trio historically dominant in the Royals’ magical postseason run to the World Series.
But that blueprint is what the Braves had in mind this winter when they signed a bevy of accomplished relievers, including four former closers — Jason Grilli and Jim Johnson and non-roster invitees Jose Veras and Matt Capps — with a combined 339 saves and three All-Star appearances between them.
The Braves collected former closers and other hard throwers such as rookie Arodys Vizcaino, while making it clear they weren’t interested in trading closer extraordinaire Craig Kimbrel. All he’s done in each of four full seasons is lead or tie for the National League lead in saves, make the All-Star team, and finish in the top 10 in Cy Young Award balloting.
“Every one of those guys understands that we have the best closer in the game,” Braves president of baseball operations John Hart said.
Some of the Braves’ setup men might not have quite the 98-100 mph heat of Royals setup standouts Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, but they’ll have stuff plenty good. That, along with the mental edge that comes from experience as a closer, most of them having successfully recorded the last three outs in close games for multiple seasons.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “You can go, today Johnson throws the seventh and Grilli the eighth, or Johnson the seventh and the eighth. That kind of stuff. It’ll be fun to work that. Hey, if the matchup is right it could be, hey Jason, we need you to get that out in the sixth.
“Getting outs in the big leagues is hard. Facing Giancarlo Stanton, it’s going to be a big out, whether it’s the ninth or it’s the seventh with the bases loaded.”
The Braves believe that applying that closer’s mentality to earlier innings could lead to a particularly potent unit if a few of those pitchers operate at a high level and stay healthy. They’ve already got the pitchers to buy into the idea.
“I’m sure plenty of teams have tried to do that before,” said Johnson, 31, who led the majors with 101 saves during the 2012-13 seasons for Baltimore. “It’s just a matter of, you’ve got to have guys who are doing it for the right reason, who are playing for the team. That’s something I think this group has, the makeup there, on top of the ability. You’ve got to have both ends of it — guys without egos, guys who can pitch, guys who can execute.”
Johnson, a 6-foot-6 right-hander, led the majors with 51 saves in 2012, and tied Kimbrel with a majors-leading 50 in 2013. But his decline last season was alarming, his ERA more than doubling to 7.09 with Oakland and Detroit.
He signed a one-year, $1.6 million contract with the Braves in early December, 12 months after signing a one-year, $10 million deal with Oakland. Johnson converted two saves in 38 appearances for Oakland and lost his closer job early.
“Back-to-back seasons with 50-plus saves, at this time last year making 10 million bucks, and they thought Oakland had stolen the guy from Baltimore,” Hart said.
“He had a down year, we were able to sort of buy low and bring him over to be a part of the bullpen. These guys all have that one thing you can’t teach — they all have experience.”
Johnson lost the command of his vaunted sinker last season, but if there’s any pitching coach who can help him get it back, the Braves believe it’s Roger McDowell. An accomplished former reliever himself, the Braves pitching coach has a track record of turning around reclamation projects.
McDowell looked forward to working with all the arms and assembling another elite bullpen, this time with a little different formula.
“It is a luxury,” McDowell said of having so many former closers as setup men, “because during the course of the year, I think we’ve all seen it, you can close games early in the game. You can close games in the sixth inning, the seventh inning and the eighth inning. And to have those guys with the back-end-of-the-bullpen experience, I think it’s great for us to be able to have those guys down there and to be able to trust those guys.”
Grilli, 38, signed a two-year, $8 million contract with a third-year option. He had 33 saves and 74 strikeouts in 50 innings for the Pirates in 2013, before slipping to a 4.00 ERA and 12 saves in 62 appearances with the Pirates and Angels in 2014. He still had 57 strikeouts in 54 innings and pitched a lot better after a trade to Anaheim.
In 2012-13, he had a 2.82 ERA and .210 opponents’ average in 118 appearances, with 164 strikeouts in 108 2/3 innings.
“We know we have some young guys that have good arms, good stuff, that could perhaps take that (setup) job,” Hart said. “But we felt that having that veteran experience, guys that may have been closers at different stages of their careers, that it may be worthwhile to add those guys to this club.
“Stability. Especially with the young rotation that we have, that we have a chance to have a very experienced bullpen with guys that have been there and done it, that still have stuff, that can compete, that aren’t going to be afraid of taking whatever roll that Fredi decides to put them in.”
