Houston Astros: Mike Fiers, roster expansion helps ease burden on bullpen

The Houston Astros have moved Mike Fiers to the bullpen with the trade of Justin Verlander and the impending return of Lance McCullers Jr. to the rotation.

The Houston Astros now have rotation and bullpen depth that will loom large for the rest of the year as they try and hold on to home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs.

Not that the team with the best road record in the majors needs it, but home field is always preferable in the postseason. Fiers’ move to the bullpen coupled with the 40 man roster expansion helps a beleaguered Astros bullpen get some rest before October hits.

Mike Fiers will provide length being able to go multiple innings if need be, eating some of those innings that would add wear and tear to our one inning relievers like Ken Giles and Luke Gregerson who have each thrown over 50 innings this season.

There’s also the 40 man roster expansion where players like Reymin Guduan, James Hoyt and Michael Feliz all could be added to give our regular seventh through ninth inning guys some much needed rest.

With the addition of Justin Verlander to the Astros rotation, the biggest question mark heading into the post season is now the bullpen. The Astros bullpen ranks 14th in all of baseball in ERA at 4.11 at the time of this writing.

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Of the five teams currently in the playoffs if they were to start today, four of them rank in the top five in all of major league baseball in bullpen ERA (Cleveland Indians lead all of baseball while the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels rank three, four and five respectively.)

While the Astros playoff roster will shrink back down when the divisional series begins, these additions to the bullpen for the time being can give a breather to the guys who need it. Chris Devenski especially could use the break considering he’s fourth in all of baseball in terms of innings pitched by a reliever with 72 this season.

The Houston Astros rotation now looks pretty solid with Dallas Keuchel, Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr. and Colin McHugh as our starting rotation come playoff time. Charlie Morton will move to a long reliever role adding even more length to the bullpen, which already has enough of it as is.

Next: September call-ups give prospects opportunities

September will be a good time for A.J. Hinch to sit some of those back end bullpen guys when the situation calls for it. Anything to avoid the last month into the post season struggles that plagued the Astros bullpen in 2015 would be a wise lesson to learn from that year. A strong bullpen will cover up the only hole this team has and will hopefully lead to the first World Series title in franchise history.

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