J.J. Hoover returned to the Cincinnati Reds‘ bullpen last night to pitch two scoreless innings that helped clinch a Reds’ win.
The return by Hoover came after a disastrous start to the 2016 season sent the 28-year-old righty packing to the minors. Hoover last appeared for the Reds on May 5 and left for the minors with a 14.34 ERA in 10.2 innings that included six home runs surrendered.
Hoover started the season as the Reds’ closer in place of departed Aroldis Chapman. Hoover wasn’t alone in his bullpen debacle. The entire Reds’ pen has failed repeatedly to the point that the group is on pace for one of the worst seasons by a bullpen in baseball history.
Hoover’s two-inning effort in his return helped lower the collective ERA by the Reds’ bullpen just a bit to 6.34. That’s still bad enough to easily rank worst this year in baseball and seventh all-time worst for bullpen ERA.
More importantly, the successful return of Hoover marks a shift for a rag-tag bullpen that has featured far too many ineffective minor leaguers and relievers otherwise unwanted by any other major league team.
Hoover’s $1.4-million salary reached through a salary arbitration hearing guaranteed that he would undoubtedly be part of the Reds’ 2016 picture. The hearing marked the first time since 2004 the Reds took a case to a salary arbitration hearing, perhaps signalling a new way of doing business by the Reds.
Before this year, Hoover had two sub-3.00 ERA full seasons sandwiched between a dud of a year in 2014 when Hoover lost 10 games and ended the year with a bloated 4.88 ERA.
Hoover is just the start to the Reds’ bullpen shift, though. The next change for the pen is coming via injured starters Raisel Iglesias and Michael Lorenzen, who are both expected to complete minor league rehabs soon before joining the team in the bullpen.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
The post J.J. Hoover return marks shift for Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen appeared first on OutsidePitchMLB.