Today, we continue our series of Ranking the NL East in 2015 at District On Deck by looking at the bullpen of each team. Recently, the Washington Nationals addressed their eighth inning vacancy by signing reliever Casey Janssen to a one year, $5 million deal. The former Toronto Blue Jays’ closer joins a team that was second in the National League in bullpen ERA (3.00). The only team in the NL to have a lower reliever ERA than the Nats in 2014 was the San Diego Padres (2.73).
When you look at the reliever numbers from last season, four of the teams in the NL East had a top seven reliever ERA in the National League. The Philadelphia Phillies had the highest ERA of any of those teams (3.64), which was 11th out 15 teams.
As far as the closer role goes, none of the teams in the NL East will have a different closer than what they had last season. That being said, the Atlanta Braves went out and signed Jason Grilli to be their eighth inning guy to Craig Kimbrel and the Miami Marlins acquired David Phelps and Aaron Crow via trades to help their pen.
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The New York Mets should be getting Bobby Parnell back to their bullpen mix after he had Tommy John surgery last season. The question will be whether or not Parnell can take the closer job away from Jenrry Mejia, who showed great flashes in that role last year.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, there have been many trade rumors surrounding closer Jonathan Papelbon, but the Phillies have a promising young reliever in Ken Giles that is their setup man right now, but could be their closer of the future.
So, which NL East team has the best bullpen heading into 2015? Check out my rankings:
Next: Number Five?