3 Takeaways From Pittsburgh Pirates Frustrating Series Split With The Rangers

The bullpen is a mess

Entering the season the bullpen was expected to be a strength for the Pirates. Felipe Vazquez, Kyle Crick, and Francisco Liriano have all been excellent, but that’s where the good ends.

Kela started the season slow, but had strung together five consecutive scoreless outings and appeared back on track before going on the IL. Nick Burdi was a strikeout machine before getting hurt. Richard Rodriguez has pitched poorly, neither Dovydas Neverauskas nor Michael Feliz should be on a MLB roster, and Tyler Lyons had been out of the Majors since last summer for a reason.

When the Pirates promote a reliever to replace Kela on the active roster tomorrow they will have eight relievers active. Only four of them (Vazquez, Crick, Liriano, and Rodriguez) will be relievers who started the season on the active roster.

Not optimal!

The bullpen being down to essentially three reliable arms in Liriano, Crick, and Vazquez makes the starters going deep that much more important. This only adds to the issues with the current roster construction. Because it is literally impossible for Brault or Kingham to do deep as neither is stretched out. This series was a whole bunch of stupid from Pirate management.

While it remains to be seen who will replace Kela, hopefully, it will be Geoff Hartlieb or Montana DuRapau. Both have pitched well at AAA this season, and both have earned an opportunity. The other options are re-treads such as Brandon Maurer or Clay Holmes. Let the young guys see what they can do.