Arizona Diamondbacks Game Preview, #105: Life post-Clippard

Patrick Corbin LHP, 4-9, 5.31

Bud Norris RHP, 6-9, 4.27

Jean Segura - 2B	Howie Kendrick - LF
Michael Bourn - CF	Corey Seager - SS
Paul Goldschmidt - 1B	Justin Turner - 3B
Jake Lamb - 3B	Scott Van Slyke - 1B
Yasmany Tomas - LF	Yasmani Grandal - C
David Peralta - RF	Yasiel Puig - RF
Chris Owings - SS	Enrique Hernandez - CF
Tuffy Gosewisch - C	Chris Taylor - 2B
Patrick Corbin - LHP	Bud Norris - RHP

It’s going to be an interesting couple of months for the Diamondbacks bullpen, through the rest of the 2016 season. Our closer has gone, traded to the Red Sox. Our main set-up man has been going through one of the worst spells of results for any pitcher I can remember. And the alternative set-up man is now also no more, having been dealt to the Yankees this morning. It certainly looks like the team will be using the remaining sixty-odd games as an open audition for roles in the 2016 bullpen. No disrespect to Adam Loewen, but he was a non-roster invitee in spring training, and nobody would have guessed he’d be working fairly high-leverage situations for the D-backs by the end of July.

That’s the move made to replace Tyler Clippard in the Arizona bullpen, and I imagine he will be one of the candidates who’ll be getting a look. It hasn’t been the greatest of seasons for Marshall, with a 6.92 ERA in his 12 appearances in the majors. The Reno numbers have been better, with a sub-four ERA, though he did miss four weeks in May/June. But, frankly, after what Evan went through last year, simply taking the mound again is impressive. Hopefully, he can perform at the expected level for the D-backs going forward: if so, there’s no reason to imagine this will be a limited stay in the big leagues for him.

However, we are now dealing with a bullpen where a lot of the arms have limited experience of tough situations facing major league hitters - where they have experience at all. Randall Delgado is, far and away, not just the most experienced pitcher down there, he is the ONLY pitcher there with significant major-league experience. Depending on how the others perform, it could be an ugly couple of months for Arizona fans, and the bullpen could end up becoming a revolving door of arms, as management tries to figure out who will stick. But if that’s the price we pay for finding a few reliable arms for 2017 and beyond, we’ll just have to deal with it.