Red Sox should rely on Matt Strahm and John Schreiber
The Red Sox went into the season expecting the back of their bullpen to consist of Jake Diekman, Hansel Robles, Ryan Braiser and Matt Barnes. To put it lightly, that has not worked out. Diekman has struggled with his command, Robles has a career-low strikeout rate, Braiser was so bad that he was just demoted to Worcester, and Barnes has somehow been even worse. The result has been a bullpen that leads the league in blown saves.
With so many of the big name relievers struggling, Alex Cora has begun to turn to some under-the-radar arms. Nobody paid much attention when the Red Sox brought in Matt Strahm from the Padres this winter, but he has been one of the best relievers in baseball, both in terms of conventional metrics (1.88 ERA) and advanced (98th percentile in XBA, XERA, and XSLG).
John Schreiber, meanwhile, began the year in Triple-A as a 28 year-old journeyman, and was only called up when Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford were ineligible for the Toronto series. All he’s done since then is pitch 8 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking none. Hitters have had a ton of trouble making contact off his funky sidearm release, and when they do, it’s usually on the ground (54.5 ground ball rate).
Managing the bullpen is all about riding the hot hand, and few in baseball are hotter than Schrieber and Strahm. Cora should make these two his highest leverage-relievers until they give him reason to do otherwise.