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By Brian Joura
We have been criticizing Billy Eppler for his options-reliever strategy since before the season started. And it’s turned out even worse than we initially feared with how those back-end relievers have all been horrible this year. But one thing that flies under the radar has been the club’s designation as Drew Smith as one of the “locks” relievers. The plan was to have five locks and then cycle thru three options relievers as needed in the back end. The Edwin Diaz injury made that four locks. And Smith made it three.
Who made the decision that Smith, who had never thrown a full season in the majors, should be considered a reliever to write into the scheme in pen? Ideally, it was a collaborative decision between Eppler and Buck Showalter. So, far the sake of argument, let’s give them 50-50 blame on this one. And what makes the decision even worse is that, according to FanGraphs, Smith has two options remaining.
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