The Arizona Diamondbacks used the trade deadline to improve their bullpen. They netted depth, if not household names, and added Matt Andriese, Brad Ziegler, and Jake Diekman to a group that already included Brad Boxberger, Archie Bradley, and Yoshihisa Hirano.
There was another reason beyond the obvious why the Diamondbacks wanted more relievers heading into the stretch run: no team has asked more of its relievers on zero days' rest.
Entering Thursday, manager Torey Lovullo had asked a relief pitcher to appear on zero days' rest some 91 times this season, according to Baseball-Reference. That's seven more appearances on no rest than any other team -- a significant margin in this category, given it's the same amount that separates second place from 12th place.
Bradley, the Diamondbacks' setup man, has accounted for 17 of those appearances, third-most in the majors behind Seattle Mariners closer Edwin Diaz and the Tampa Bay Rays' Sergio Romo, who has been used in a variety of roles, including closer and opener. The D-Backs have four pitchers total in the top 50, and six in the top 100 (though, to be fair, Fernando Salas and Jorge De La Rosa are no longer active members of the team). The aforementioned Hirano and Boxberger have combined for 23 such appearances.
A heavy workload would be nothing new for Ziegler, who is tied for fifth in the majors with 16 no-rest appearances. Over the first 10 years in his career, he averaged about 19 per season. He's likely to see more appearances and fewer innings, perhaps sliding into a specialist role. Andriese, meanwhile, has yet to pitch on back-to-back days for good reason -- he's there to provide length, having tossed multiple frames in 21 of his 25 relief appearances. Diekman has done a little of both: five multi-inning appearances, seven on zero days' rest.
In all, the Diamondbacks seem to have a solid, versatile bullpen on paper -- and it seems like they'll be positioned better to avoid burning out their best relievers in their hunt for a playoff berth.
