Postseason baseball has become a bullpen game, almost unrecognizable from the game that's played in the regular season. Last postseason, 46.5 percent of the innings were pitched by relievers, the second-highest total for a single postseason, and the highest for one with more than one round. In the early going, this year's percentage is already higher (48.3 percent).
With that in mind, let's break down the best bullpens among this year's playoff teams. There are obviously a few ways to look at it, but the answer is obvious no matter how you slice it.
Everybody knows about the Yankees' trio of hard-throwing veterans: Closer Aroldis Chapman, and setup men Dellin Betances and David Robertson anchored the bullpen with the highest strikeout percentage in the majors this season. And among the 147 pitchers to appear in at least 50 games, the Yankees had the pitchers with the third- and fourth-highest strikeout percentage in Chapman and Betances, respectively.
What sets them apart is the addition of another high-velo stud in Chad Green -- he gives the Yankees four of the top 25 relievers in strikeout percentage, and he was fourth in the league among relief pitchers in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.3).
Plus, he can give you long outings -- he's one of 20 relievers this season with at least 20 appearances of more than one inning. And he was excellent in those outings, posting a 2.48 ERA with 43 strikeouts and just four walks. When you've got a reliever you can count on for multiple innings, that lessens the need to go to your lesser relievers at all, and with the built-in off days of a playoff series, that's a huge advantage.
The Astros posted the best bullpen ERA in baseball this season despite demoting and then trading their Opening Day closer. They had three different pitchers record at least 12 saves, including Roberto Osuna, who served a 75-game suspension and didn't pitch for the team until August.
Their best guy wasn't a standout ninth-inning guy. Converted starter Collin McHugh posted a 1.99 ERA, and had 21 outings of more than one inning (only 10 relievers had more). And Tony Sipp isn't quite a lefty specialist, but he did average less than an inning per appearance, and he faced almost exactly as many left-handers as right-handers.
Their relief corps was great thanks in large part to being fresh. They threw the second-fewest innings of any bullpen in the majors thanks to their starters going deep into games -- they're the first AL team in three years that had three starters throw at least 200 innings.
But given all that, the Brewers have the bullpen to watch in this year's playoffs. They had the fifth-best ERA in the majors despite throwing the fifth-most innings. They had the third-highest strikeout percentage, behind only the Yankees and Astros. And looking at their best guys, they have the second-best ERA from their five most-used pitchers (in terms of appearances) of any team in baseball.
And they had two stars who did it in different ways. Jeremy Jeffress led the team with 73 appearances, posting a 1.29 ERA -- the lowest ERA by a pitcher with 70 appearances since Wade Davis's insane season four years ago (when he had a 1.00 ERA with 109 strikeouts in 72 innings).
Josh Hader led the team in innings by a reliever, pitching 81.1 innings in 55 appearances, and put up a 2.43 ERA. He had 143 strikeouts, second-most on the team despite being fifth in innings pitched! He struck out 46.7 percent of the batters he faced, the highest in a single season in MLB history (min. 80 innings pitched). And so far in the postseason, he's retired all seven batters he's faced, striking out four of them.
Hader led the league in relief outings of more than one inning pitched with 33 of them, and the Brewers went 29-4 in those games. Hader had a 1.71 ERA in those outings with 100 strikeouts against just 21 walks.
And both guys did it in big spots -- Jeffress and Hader were second and fifth in the majors, respectively, in Win Probability Added in relief appearances, and were the top two in the National League.
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