Texas Rangers 2019 Positional Review: Bullpen

One of the underrated strengths of a good team in baseball is a great bullpen. Compliment that with starters who can go deep into games and you'll find yourself in the win column a lot more often than not.

A starting rotation and a bullpen have to compliment each other in order for the whole staff to function. The Rangers had two fantastic starters in Mike Minor and Lance Lynn that pitched over 200 innings, but had three rotation spots that were in flux pretty much all season long.

That being said, the Rangers' bullpen in 2019 still performed below expectations. Texas went into 2019 with a few solid relievers in Jesse Chavez, Chris Martin, and Shawn Kelley to compliment closer Jose Leclerc, who had just come off a phenomenal 2018 campaign.

Leclerc lost his job closing games by the end of April. Jesse Chavez also started off rocky, but eventually turned things around and had a 22.2-inning stretch not allowing a single run though all of May and part of June. Shawn Kelley provided some stability to the back end of the bullpen, but still put up pedestrian numbers. The Rangers' best reliever was Chris Martin, but was shipped to Atlanta for starting pitching prospect Kolby Allard in July.

After a tough game Jose Leclerc talks about getting back on track closing games for the @Rangers.#TogetherWe pic.twitter.com/7n0FgPU7nW
— Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) April 21, 2019

The Texas bullpen logged 630 innings out of the bullpen, which was 10th-most in baseball. They also sported the 10th-highest bullpen ERA with a mark of 4.73. However, bullpen did send a reliever to the mound 57 more times when they were behind in a game than ahead. The bullpen was also right at league average of allowing 32% of inherited runners to score.

While the bullpen wasn't great, they still had some positives to take out of 2019. Leclerc still wasn't who he was in 2018, but still had a remarkable 13.1 K/9, which is right up there with his 2018 mark of 13.3.

Brett Martin, even though owning a 4.76 ERA, logged 62.1 innings out of the bullpen, which is the most any left-handed reliever recorded for Texas in 2019.

Rafael Montero and Emmanuel Clase both put up sub-2.50 ERA's in 29 and 23.1 innings, respectively.

2020 Outlook

Projected locks: Jose Leclerc, Jesse Chavez, Rafael Montero, Emmanuel Clase, Brett Martin
Internal options: Jonathan Hernandez, Luke Farrell, Ian Gibaut, Kyle Bird, Jeffrey Springs

Offseason priority: MEDIUM

Despite his struggles last season, Jose Leclerc will more than likely commandeer the closing role yet again in 2020. He has the best stuff that modern-day closers possess and has now gone through both success and failure at the position. If he can learn from what went wrong a season ago, he could become more like the 2018 version we saw dominate hitters night after night.

Both Montero and Clase have strong arms and have decent secondary pitches. They did well in 2019, but in a limited amount of time. Clubs will have more information on these guys and 2020 will be a good test for what exactly the Rangers have in this pair of arms.

Chavez should stay away from the rotation. Obviously, with three-fifths of the rotation in flux, he was needed in 2019 for spot starts, but was much more effective as a reliever. The 2020 rotation should be more solidified if all goes well this winter. Chavez can then get back to pitching in the 7th or 8th inning, where he is the most effective.

There is always a plethora of relievers on the free agent market, ranging in age and value. The Rangers likely won't spend a lot of money on a reliever, but could bring in a veteran or two to be in similar roles that Shawn Kelley was a season ago on a similar contract.

The Rangers have plenty of arms internally that they would be smart to give opportunities to out of the bullpen. They found effective relief pitchers like that in the past (Alexi Ogando, Tommy Hunter) and could do something similar in 2020.

Jonathan Hernandez could earn a spot as a long reliever, but will also be in the discussion for the back end of the rotation. Luke Farrell was dominant in a very small sample size in 2019. Ian Gibaut, Kyle Bird, and Jeffrey Springs will all be given shots in spring training to earn a spot in an eight-man bullpen with the active rosters expanding to 26 men.

2020 Outlook

Read more 2019 positional reviews on SI Rangers Maven: