For MLB teams chasing October glory, building a bullpen is a vital — and confounding — exercise

For a World Series that was supposed to feature an epic battle between sluggers Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, guys like Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver, Alex Vesia, and Anthony Banda sure got a lot of face time.

This year's Fall Classic provided furr proof that a great bullpen in essential in baseball, particularly in postseason. It also has led to concerns from people ranging from supernt Scott Boras to Players' Association he Tony Clark that sport is abusing arms .

Regardless, building a quality bullpen remains a challenge.

“You need so many arms over course of season, and in postseason, it’s even more magnified,” Los Angeles Angels general manr Perry Minasian said. “Quality arms, quality strikes. But quantity is a big deal, too. Where do you get it?”

bullpen is usually an afterthought for casual baseball fans, particularly middle relievers, who don't get spotlight of ninth inning. y toil in relative anymity while getting tough outs in tough situations and are much like NFL offensive linemen — ticed only when something goes terribly wrong.

Dodgers used Vesia, Banda and Michael Kopech in four out of five games of World Series while Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol appeared in three games. y combined to throw 15 1/3 innings — often in high-lever situations — and gave up five runs.

That's a 2.93 ERA.

For a bunch of guys only serious seamhes kw, that's t too shabby.

“I have a lot of good players, and y understand that it’s about getting 27 outs a night,” Dodgers manr Dave Roberts said. “It could be anyone at any given moment.”

Building a big league bullpen is intriguing because cost isn't really prohibitive factor, making it arguably most egalitarian position in a sport that doesn't have a salary cap. Banda ($740,000), Vesia ($1 million), Treinen ($1 million), Kopech ($3 million) and Graterol ($2.7 million) me pocket change compared with ir teammate Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal last offseason.

Inste, it comes down to scouting, development and sometimes dumb luck. It's sometimes more art than science.

“I wish we knew,” said Erik Neander, Tampa Bay's president of baseball operations. “We would have won more games last year.”

Boras is among those who aren’t pleased with way relievers are being used. Clay Holmes pitched for Yankees in all five games of World Series and re’s little doubt that pitchers — particularly relievers — are being pushed to exhaustion in October.

“We have got to stop burning up our beautiful young arms by pitching m in a way, in a manner, that we would never do during (regular) season,” Boras said Wednesday.

Over past 10 years, aver fastball velocity has risen from 93.3 mph to 95.5 during 2024 regular season. Injury rates also have skyrocketed, with 484 pitchers going on injured list this year, nearly double 2014 total.

Regardless of how GMs feel about bullpen us, injury explosion is one more reason that finding consistent relievers is a difficult task.

Using valuable young arms in bullpen is risky, but pursuing veteran relievers in free ncy is also a crapshoot. Take case of Treinen, a 36-year-old who has h a career that typifies ups and downs of being a reliever.

He was an All-Star in 2018 with Oakland Athletics, with a microscopic 0.78 ERA and 100 strikeouts over 80 1/3 innings. next year, he fell off drastically with a 4.91 ERA.

Dodgers thought he could bounce back in 2020 and y were right — he h a solid season and helped le LA to a World Series title. It went so well that Dodgers signed him to a two-year deal after season. He was great again in 2021 but suffered a serious shoulder injury and missed almost entire 2022 season.

He signed an extension but missed 2023 season with same shoulder injury and didn't return until 2024, when he bounced back again with a 1.93 ERA and ar championship.

w Treinen is back on market.

“You can look at it multiple ways,” said Minasian, who was speaking generally and t about Treinen. “You might say: 'Wow, he's taken ball a ton. He's been used drastically over last three, four years, so I'm t sure what it's going to look like going forward,' or it could be: ‘Hey, he’s held up. He pitches. He's been consistent and takes ball.'”

Houston Astros are a team that's h a great bullpen over last several years with pitchers like Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly. General manr Dana Brown said re's always volatility in bullpen, but that's t all due to injuries.

“It's just game today,” Brown said. “You have all this information, and sometimes hitters, y study you. film — y look at it. y find your weak spots and try to exploit you.”

Brown said one quality he likes in relievers is a sense of humility, understanding that y might have to change ir strategy on mound as ir body deals with a long career.

“ guys who don't have a teachable spirit, or aptitude, y sometimes get lost in sauce,” Brown said