Cincinnati Reds use starting prospects to keep bullpen together through April

The Cincinnati Reds are using former starting prospects in the bullpen in order to hold things together.

When you look in the Reds’ bullpen these days, it is a veritable row of last year’s top starting prospects.  Last year’s Opening Day starting pitcher Raisel Iglesias is the closer.  Three years ago Iglesias was considered a top prospect as a starter.  From there the pen also includes Michael Lorenzen, Cody Reed and Robert Stephenson, all pitchers that have started multiple games for the Reds.

It’s more than just being there too.  Aside from Stephenson, all of the pitchers have had roles in the numerous Reds’ wins already in the first month of the season.  Lorenzen has been used in long relief, as a set-up man, and to get a save.

Reed has had several good appearances, despite having one atrocious start this season.  For his first four outings of the season, covering eight innings, Reed surrendered no runs.  In fact he has only allowed one run in 10 relief innings vs. 7 runs in 2 innings as a starter.  His use as a reliever may be part of a plan to bring Reed along slowly.

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Even lefty Wandy Peralta used to be a starting prospect.  Now he is a high leverage, left-handed pitcher.  He is slowly morphing into an Andrew Miller-mike lefty that can face righties too.

The lone disaster in the bullpen scenario this year is Stephenson.  He just refuses to through strikes when he pitches in the big leagues.  He has a 8.71 ERA heading into May.

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The Cincinnati Reds have hope that their bullpen will stick together now that the calendar has turned to May.

There are a couple of really good pieces of news regarding this set-up of the bullpen.  The overall staff is beginning to crumble, but the bullpen is mostly holding its own.  Only Blake Wood seems to be having trouble doing better than last year.

The real good news is that with starters in the bullpen, total innings pitched should not be an issue.  All of the starters have been trained to pitch 150+ innings per campaign.  The most heavily used relieves don’t even make it to 100 innings.

Another nice piece of news is that there is a reason these were all starting prospects, they could get outs.  As relievers, they just become better at strikeouts, or at least they should.  They all have the stuff to make it, even the struggling Stephenson.

Next: From closer to anywhere - the Drew Storen saga

The starters need to eat more innings so that manager Bryan Price can use the people when he wants to.  Too often he has been forced to use Drew Storen or Lorenzen early in games.  If the starters can help just a touch, the bullpen should stay solid in May and beyond.