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Rays Mess With Success, Alter Their Bullpen

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By MARC LANCASTER

mlancaster@tampatrib.com

Published: March 21, 2009

Updated: 03/21/2009 12:46 am

DUNEDIN - The Rays' bullpen was hardly broken after last season, but they decided to go ahead and fix it anyway.

Call it a pre-emptive strike or just preventative maintenance on the part of executive vice president Andrew Friedman, but the Rays weren't comfortable assuming their relief corps would be just as effective in 2009 as it was in 2008 if the same cast of characters returned.

Recent history has demonstrated that bullpens are prone to pronounced ups and downs from season to season, with a unit that was among the game's best one year morphing into a liability the next. Friedman and his staff were well aware of that tendency last fall and were determined to do all they could to avoid perpetuating it.

"That was probably our biggest concern going into the offseason," Friedman said. "Just because of the volatility year-to-year in major-league bullpens and the number of innings that our guys threw, having depth was extremely important to us."

Having a little new blood on hand doesn't hurt, either. Discussing his team as a whole, Manager Joe Maddon has said repeatedly this spring that the Rays can't simply follow the path they took to the World Series last year and expect the result to be the same.

That rings true with the bullpen as much as any other group, even after it posted a 3.55 ERA that ranked fifth-best in the majors. The Rays got career years out of Grant Balfour and J.P. Howell and can't assume either will duplicate his success. And they certainly didn't know what to expect from closer Troy Percival as he headed into a winter that included back surgery after serving three stints on the disabled list last season.

"It's not that we necessarily expected anything or we were smart enough to know where it would come from," Friedman said. "Our whole mindset was we have no idea, but if it happens, you want to have the requisite depth on hand instead of saying 'poor us.'"

When Chad Bradford hurt his elbow shortly after beginning his offseason throwing program in January, it only served as a reminder just how fragile the bullpen can be. Bradford, the groundball specialist acquired last August, will be sidelined until at least May.

But after bringing in seasoned relievers Joe Nelson, Brian Shouse and Lance Cormier during the winter and adding Jason Isringhausen, at the last minute on a minor-league deal, the Rays feel they're well-covered. In fact, two of those four pitchers might not crack the Opening Day roster even with Bradford out of the mix.

The Rays consider six relievers locked into roster spots - Percival, Balfour, Howell, Nelson, Shouse and Dan Wheeler. That leaves one opening, almost certainly for a long reliever, that likely will fall to either Cormier or the loser of the Jeff Niemann-Jason Hammel duel for the final rotation spot. So Cormier could be out of luck, and as much as the Rays would love to keep Isringhausen as a potential late-inning option, they don't appear to have the room.

For those who make the cut, Maddon plans to continue the same strategy he employed throughout last season in an effort to keep everyone fresh. That means the pitchers slotted in between the long man and the closer might be deployed at any time.

"They're not just slotted as the sixth-, seventh-, eighth-inning guy; they could be any one of those," Maddon said. "When you move the roles around, I think you somewhat ameliorate the pressure or you add to it on a daily basis. So if you take a guy one day and he pitches in the eighth and two days later he's pitching in the sixth, it's a different kind of a feeling."

And it's a feeling Maddon believes "may have some impact in regard to helping us to not go through this typical next-year bullpen syndrome where it's anticipated or expected that they're not going to be as good the next year as they were before."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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