Carlos Estevez led the majors in saves last year, earning a spot on the American League All-Star team and making him seemingly a lock to nail down games for the Kansas City Royals this season. But his velocity tanked this spring, and then he got hit by a batted ball. While working his way back last month, he got hurt again, suffering a strained rotator cuff last week.
“It’s been a crazy first part of the year already, snowballing everything,” Estevez said Sunday, standing at his locker. “It sucks. I’m not going to tell you I’m not mad. But it happens.”
Estevez won’t throw for three more weeks, and then he’s hoping to start working his way back -- and given the volatility of bullpens around the game, it’s possible that he’ll get another chance to close games later this year. “I have hope,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I just have to keep working. I’ll be back, right on time, ready for the playoff hunt.”
With Estevez out, Royals manager Matt Quatraro turned to Lucas Erceg, who has been excellent, stabilizing the Kansas City bullpen and allowing just two hits and no earned runs over his past eight outings; he has compiled 10 saves this season.
The Royals might have found a temporary fix, but the closer roller coaster has been a popular ride throughout Major League Baseball this year.
We’re just a quarter into the 2026 season, and through Sunday’s games, 118 relievers have registered saves. Case in point: Seven relievers have combined for the Minnesota Twins’ eight saves, and three relievers have multiple saves for the Texas Rangers. And to put that overall number into context -- during the entire 2009 season, 124 relievers generated saves, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
Sure, some teams have avoided the back-of-the-bullpen chaos: Mason Miller is doing historic work for the San Diego Padres, interim Boston Red Sox manager Chad Tracy can summon Aroldis Chapman and though David Bednar hasn’t been perfect for the New York Yankees, he’s locked in as their closer.
But a lot of managers and front offices are scrambling to figure out who will get the last outs, either because of injuries, early struggles or a mix of both.
Edwin Diaz signed a three-year, $69 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the offseason, but he posted a 10.50 ERA over six innings before he was shut down for elbow surgery; L.A. hopes to get him back before the end of the season. Houston Astros closer Josh Hader hasn’t pitched in a big league game this year because of injury. Hard-throwing right-hander Daniel Palencia opened the year as the Chicago Cubs’ closer, went on the injured list and now he’s back; seven relievers have posted saves for the Cubs this year.
Cincinnati Reds closer Emilio Pagan is one of the latest relievers to succumb to injury, suffering a Grade 2 left hamstring strain last week that’ll keep him out six weeks. Manager Terry Francona leaned on Tony Santillan, who had been really good to start the season, as a result of Pagan’s injury, but then Santillan allowed hits to all four batters he faced Friday. He went through a bullpen session the next morning to try to sort through his issues and was unavailable for Saturday’s game. With the Reds leading 3-1 that day, Francona gave the ball to Graham Ashcraft for the eighth inning, hoping he could work a quick inning and go back out for the ninth. But after Ashcraft threw 19 pitches, Pierce Johnson went out for the ninth and got his first save of the season.
Underperformances have also been widespread. Ryan Walker closed out the San Francisco Giants’ first win of the season March 30 but was demoted to Triple-A over the weekend with a 6.46 ERA. Toronto Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman got off to a slow start this season after having a chance to close out Game 7 of the World Series last year but instead allowed a tying home run to Miguel Rojas before Toronto lost in extra innings. Louis Varland, who had been the setup man for Hoffman at the end of the 2025 season, has changed roles with Hoffman, and Varland has excelled as closer.
Andres Munoz, the All-Star closer for the Seattle Mariners, has a 6.00 ERA. Devin Williams, signed by the New York Mets in the offseason, has a 5.68 ERA after surrendering 15 hits and six walks in 12⅔ innings. Jordan Romano got a chance to save games for the Los Angeles Angels early this season, but he was recently cut, with a 10.13 ERA.
“It’s a mess out there,” one high-ranking executive said of the bullpen chaos.
But there’s hope.
History has shown that front offices can successfully execute a bullpen makeover in the middle of a season. Mike Rizzo, former general manager of the Washington Nationals, has a championship ring to prove that.
Two months into the 2019 season, Washington was 19-31, and the bullpen was a huge problem. Sean Doolittle was performing effectively as closer, but others were struggling terribly. “Bullpens can be unreliable,” Rizzo told ESPN on Friday. “The flows of the bullpen can change month to month. ... It’s just the way bullpens are built: When they’re doing well, [the relievers] are working all the time, and eventually, you pay a price for that. And when they’re not doing well, they’re not pitching as much.”
The Nationals’ bullpen hit a low point May 23 that year: Their relievers had a 4.40 ERA, 23rd out of 30 teams, and changes were needed. “Nothing can make a manager look worse than a bullpen,” Rizzo said. “He was making all the correct moves, but when the bullpen door swung open, nothing good was coming out of it.”
So, the supporting cast around Doolittle shifted through the first months of the season, and Rizzo looked for help. At the outset of that season, 32-year-old Daniel Hudson had been hanging on the fringes of the big leagues after being released for the fourth time in his career, this time by the Tampa Bay Rays. Hudson signed with the Blue Jays, threw better for Toronto, and with the Jays out of contention in late July, they looked to trade him.
On July 31, Rizzo swapped minor league right-hander Kyle Johnston to the Jays for Hudson, who initially worked in a set-up role for the Nationals. Doolittle was injured Aug. 17, and a month later, Hudson recorded a save against the Cardinals. When Washington eventually beat Houston in the World Series that October, Hudson threw the last pitch, and he was in the middle of the dogpile of champions.
Just as Rizzo and the Nationals did in the summer of 2019, some general managers might address their bullpen holes through deals before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Waiver claims are always an option, with teams looking to tinker with newcomers. Some clubs will promote prospects into high-leverage bullpen roles -- Seattle’s Kade Anderson and the Yankees’ Carlos LaGrange are two possibilities. And injured relievers, such as Diaz and Estevez, will heal and attempt to work their way back.
But the only sure thing in MLB bullpens in 2026, it seems, is volatility.
