Over the last decade, the importance of having a dominant bullpen has been prevalent in teams that pursue pennants. The San Francisco Giants back end has consisted of guys like Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson and Jeremy Affeldt who were clutch in high-pressure situations. The Kansas City Royals trio of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland was the game’s best in 2015 and ’16 (minus Holland in ’16).
Last year, we saw a Cleveland Indians team, whose lost two top starters to injury, rely on Brian Shaw, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen to eliminate the opposition during the back half of games.