At the beginning of the 2016 season, the Cleveland Indians appeared to have three very solid relief pitchers in Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw and Jeff Manship. All three were coming off impressive 2015 campaigns and were projected to be the workhorses of the bullpen again.
As the season took shape, Manship did not look like the lights-out arm that posted a 0.92 ERA the previous season and Shaw had a hard time holding leads late in games. While Shaw would slowly get his issues under better control, it was obvious that Tribe manager Terry Francona had been more hesitant with going to Manship.