Bullpens are stretched as starting pitchers are not

Mike Marshall led the majors in appearances in 1973, with 92 for the Montreal Expos. The next spring, having joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, Marshall met his new manager, Walter Alston.

“He said, ‘If you’re ever tired, you let me know, otherwise I’ll use you,’” Marshall said in an interview last summer. “I said, ‘I’ll tell you right now: I will never tell you that I’m tired.’”

That season Marshall worked in a record 106 games. No pitcher has come within 12 ever since, but we just might witness history at Citi Field this season: Jerry Blevins, the veteran Mets left-hander, was on pace to make 98 appearances before Wednesday’s game against San Diego.

That would eclipse the record for a left-hander, 92, set by the Mets’ Pedro Feliciano in 2010.

Feliciano soon blew out his shoulder, missed the next two seasons and was effectively finished after that. Marshall lasted a lot longer, but Blevins does not aspire to break either pitcher’s record.

“It’s not like a goal of mine to throw that much,” he said Wednesday. “But the season has ups and downs. As long as I feel like I’m ready to pitch, I’ll be available. If I’m not, I won’t throw that day.”

Usually, Blevins is ready. So are most of his fellow Mets relievers. Through Tuesday, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Mets were using an average of 3.98 relievers per game, which would break the record set by the Dodgers last season.

The Dodgers — who averaged 3.74 relief appearances (606 over all) — ended up in the National League Championship Series.

These Mets, battered by injuries and slumps, are just trying to sniff .500. Their reliance on so many relievers is largely caused by the woeful performance of their starters, whose 5.15 earned run average ranked 28th of 30 teams ahead of Robert Gsellman’s start against the Padres on Wednesday.

It also reflects a trend throughout baseball: With starters going fewer and fewer innings, managers are slicing the remaining workload thinly among multiple bullpen arms.

According to Elias, there were 15,303 relief appearances in the majors last season, the most ever. That came to 6.3 per game (both teams combined), and through Tuesday, this year’s figure was 6.24, which would be the second-highest ever. The number will likely most rise when rosters expand in September.

“Everybody’s concerned about workloads and pitch counts,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “In certain situations you’ve got to protect those starting pitchers, and we’re certainly the team that’s exposed more than anything.

With the injuries that have caused problems with our rotation, hey, we’ve got to be very careful with the ones that we still have here, because if they have issues, we don’t have a lot behind them.”

Sometimes, Collins added, teams seek only five or six innings from their starters because they have better bullpen options for the last few innings. That is largely due to the volume of hard-throwing relievers flooding the game.

The new 10-day disabled list — down from 15 days — also makes it easier for teams to shuffle in new relievers to replace tired ones.

“High-octane arms are in overabundance now, compared to what you saw before,” Padres Manager Andy Green said. “Sixth-inning guys now are a lot better than sixth-inning guys used to be. Managers have that type of choice, the ability to go to that arm and cycle through options.

With the 10-day D.L., there’s teams that are operating under a much larger roster than a 25-man roster right now. So it keeps arms fresh.”

These Mets, battered by injuries and slumps, are just trying to sniff .500. Their reliance on so many relievers is largely caused by the woeful performance of their starters, whose 5.15 earned run average ranked 28th of 30 teams ahead of Robert Gsellman’s start against the Padres on Wednesday.

It also reflects a trend throughout baseball: With starters going fewer and fewer innings, managers are slicing the remaining workload thinly among multiple bullpen arms.

According to Elias, there were 15,303 relief appearances in the majors last season, the most ever. That came to 6.3 per game (both teams combined), and through Tuesday, this year’s figure was 6.24, which would be the second-highest ever.

The number will likely most rise when rosters expand in September.

“Everybody’s concerned about workloads and pitch counts,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “In certain situations you’ve got to protect those starting pitchers, and we’re certainly the team that’s exposed more than anything.

With the injuries that have caused problems with our rotation, hey, we’ve got to be very careful with the ones that we still have here, because if they have issues, we don’t have a lot behind them.”

Sometimes, Collins added, teams seek only five or six innings from their starters because they have better bullpen options for the last few innings. That is largely due to the volume of hard-throwing relievers flooding the game.

The new 10-day disabled list — down from 15 days — also makes it easier for teams to shuffle in new relievers to replace tired ones.

“High-octane arms are in overabundance now, compared to what you saw before,” Padres Manager Andy Green said. “Sixth-inning guys now are a lot better than sixth-inning guys used to be.

Managers have that type of choice, the ability to go to that arm and cycle through options. With the 10-day D.L., there’s teams that are operating under a much larger roster than a 25-man roster right now. So it keeps arms fresh.”

“It’s a combination of many things — it’s starter health, and trust in the talent in the bullpen is a lot stronger now,” Blevins said, speaking generally. “They see matchups a little bit different than they did in years past. The game’s kind of evolving to appreciate what we do down in the bullpen a little bit more.”

All that work has suited Blevins, whose 1.72 E.R.A. was the best on the Mets. The E.R.A. for rest of the relievers, though, was 5.36. Chasing the team appearances record — with that group — is no relief at all for the Mets.

(THE NEW YORK TIMES)