A glimpse into the future? Whitlock's success could foreshadow new wave of hybrid relievers

Apr. 24—Baseball has continuously evolved over it's nearly 150-year history, and nowhere is that evolution more evident than in how teams use their pitching staffs.

Once upon a time starting pitchers were expected to complete every game, and it wasn't unusual for pitchers to top 300 innings in a season. As time went on relief pitchers took on a greater role, leading to the development of the modern ninth-inning closer as well as dedicated set-up men to bridge the gap between them and the starter.

Now we're seeing another shift, one driven by analytics and accelerated by the disruption caused by the pandemic and lockout. The collective result is starters are pitching much shorter outings than ever before, and where the baseline for a typical outing used to be around seven innings, now many starters are lucky if they make it through five.

With so many more innings to cover over the course of a season, pitchers who can step in, throw multiple innings and dominate against a wide variety of matchups will become increasingly valuable. Much like the closer emerged in response to earlier shifts, today's trends could pave the way for another new breed of reliever, a sort of next-generation weapon whose job is to get the biggest outs whenever they are, not just in a traditional save situation.

And Garrett Whitlock could be the prototype.

The second-year Red Sox right-hander has been among the most dominant and unique pitchers in baseball since making his debut last spring. As a rookie Whitlock appeared in 46 games, threw 73.1 innings and posted a 1.96 ERA, becoming one of just four pitchers since 2000 who has appeared in between 40-50 games, thrown more than 70 innings, come out of the bullpen in at least 80% of his outings and posted an ERA of 2.50 or better.

This season he's on track to meet or exceed all of those totals, and so far he's been deployed in a variety of different high-leverage situations, functioning as a sort of hybrid closer who is just as capable of getting the last 12 outs as he is the last three.

For a pitching staff still trying to figure itself out after the lockout-shortened spring training, Whitlock has been a godsend.

"The versatility is great," said Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush. "Most guys end up in one role or the another because that's where they're most valuable, but for us right now with the makeup of our team, the ability to use Whit in different situations is helping us the most and he's handling it really well."

Whitlock's future may well be as a starting pitcher, but even if he isn't long for his current role the impact he's made could serve as a blueprint for future teams to follow.

It's not a stretch to imagine some might even start developing pitchers with that role specifically in mind.

Most clubs have no shortage of promising starting pitching prospects in their systems at any given time. Some might even have big league caliber stuff, but because the major league rotation is already full or they aren't quite ready to take on a lineup more than once through the order, there might not be an obvious place for them in the majors.

But in a Whitlock-type role, maybe some of those pitchers could carve out a niche and make an impact sooner? A hybrid role would even allow them to stay stretched out, so if the club needed to move them back into a traditional starting job they could do so without completely upending their routine.

In some respects the Red Sox are already doing this with rookie Kutter Crawford, another starting pitching prospect who made the Opening Day roster as a multi-inning weapon similar to Whitlock.

Obviously it's far too early to draw any conclusions on whether Whitlock ends up being a trendsetter or a one-off phenomenon. But as fewer starters reach 200 innings teams are going to have to continue adapting, making it more likely the trend towards multi-inning relievers becomes a lasting one.

"I think we and other teams are finding that guys who can get six outs or more when we can pick out a bigger pocket of the lineup is really useful, it's easier to spread out the other relievers that way," Bush said. "I know at the end of this month the rosters cut back down so we'll have a smaller pitching staff and guys like that could become more valuable."

Devers making huge strides defensively

Rafael Devers is a tremendous talent, but it's no secret that defense has been an issue for him throughout his big league career. He has ranked among MLB's leaders in errors each of his first five seasons, and the advanced fielding metrics have consistently rated him as a net negative at third base.

But so far this year that hasn't been the case.

Through the season's first two weeks Devers has demonstrated remarkable improvement as a fielder, both making the routine and highlight reel plays with a level of confidence and consistency we've rarely seen from the 25-year-old all-star. That continues a trend we first saw in spring training, and the numbers back up what the eye test has suggested.

As of Friday Devers had yet to commit an error on the season through 12 games, and his advanced metrics all point to massive improvement. According to BaseballProjection.com's Total Zone Runs stat, which aims to calculate the number of runs above or below average the player is worth based on the number of plays made, Devers is currently listed as plus-2, which puts him among the top 10 third basemen in all of baseball so far and only one run behind guys like Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado.

To put that into perspective, last season Devers finished with a career-worst minus-21 in that same statistic, and his previous best was minus-five as a rookie in 2017, when he only played 56 games at the position.

Obviously it's still early, but if this improvement is real it would signify a massive leap forward for Devers and a terrific development for the Red Sox.

Changes coming to Hall of Fame era committees

Generally speaking there are two ways to earn induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The method most people are familiar with is the Baseball Writers Association of America vote, during which players who have been retired for between 5-15 years can be enshrined if they receive 75% of the vote.

The other, less well known way is to be voted in by one of the Hall of Fame's era committees, and this week the Hall of Fame announced big changes to that process.

Where previously there were four committees covering various eras of baseball history, going forward those committees will be consolidated into two timeframes, the Contemporary Baseball Era and the Classic Baseball Era. The Contemporary Era will cover the period from 1980 to the present, and the Classic Era will cover the time prior to 1980, including the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro League stars.

In addition, the Contemporary Era will be split into two separate ballots, one to consider players and the other to consider managers, executives and umpires. The three ballots will rotate on an annual basis, with each consisting of eight candidates.

The first ballot up will be the Contemporary Era players ballot this December, and it could potentially be a blockbuster. Several of the most controversial Hall of Fame candidates who failed to earn induction in their final attempt last winter — including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa — will be eligible, and if they make the ballot they'll be judged by a committee consisting of 16 members of the Hall of Fame, executives and veteran media members. Voters can choose up to three players, and candidates will need to appear on at least 12 of 16 ballots to earn induction.

After this year, next up will be the Contemporary Era non-players ballot in December 2023, followed by the Classic Baseball ballot in December 2024, and then the cycle will repeat annually from there.

Mayer off to flying startMarcelo Mayer, the No. 4 overall pick in last summer's MLB Draft, has gotten off to a terrific start to his first full season of professional ball. Entering the weekend the 19-year-old shortstop was batting .333 with six doubles and a .404 on-base percentage for the Low-A Salem Red Sox, and on Thursday he put on a show by going 4 for 5 with two doubles, two runs scored and a stolen base.

Among the other notable prospects off to strong starts, shortstop Ceddanne Rafaela is batting .382 with six home runs and a 1.214 OPS with the High-A Greenville Drive, infielder David Hamilton has a .985 OPS with three home runs and 10 stolen bases for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, and infielder Ryan Fitzgerald has carried his hot spring training into the regular season with five home runs and a 1.116 OPS with the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox.

On the pitching side, Portland might have the most intriguing starting rotation a Red Sox affiliate has had in years. Starting pitchers Victor Santos, Chris Murphy, Brandon Walter and Brayan Bello have all been outstanding, each holding opposing hitters to under .200 averages while collectively posting a 2.13 ERA with 76 strikeouts over their first 63.1 innings. Connor Seabold has been similarly dominant in Worcester, posting a 1.23 ERA over 14.2 innings in his first three starts, and Wikelman Gonzalez has yet to allow an earned run through his first three starts for Salem, striking out 18 over 11 innings.

The week's most notable minor league story, unfortunately, was the huge bench clearing brawl that broke out during Thursday's Sea Dogs game against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The incident occurred in the third inning after Portland's Tyreque Reed was hit by a pitch by Binghamton's Marcel Renteria, and after the two exchanged words while Reed was walking to first, Reed charged the mound and punched Renteria in the head. Reed and Binghamton third baseman Brett Baty were ejected from the game and Portland went on to win 12-5.

Frelick's big dayLexington native Sal Frelick, selected No. 15 overall by the Milwaukee Brewers in last summer's draft, had himself a day on Wednesday for the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The former Boston College star went 5 for 5 with a home run, a double, three runs scored and a stolen base in his team's 10-9 win over the Quad Cities River Bandits. Overall Frelick is batting .302 with an .888 OPS through 12 games to start the year.

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.