Cleveland Indians: How the bullpen became one of MLB’s worst

The Cleveland Indians bullpen is one of the worst in Major League Baseball. After two years of dominance, here’s how the unit starting trending downward.

Frank Sinatra’s iconic song “New York, New” says if you can make it in the Big Apple, you can make it anywhere.

Bad news for the Indians’ bullpen, as Tribe relievers would be lucky to make it in Class A ball, let alone Yankee Stadium.

Entering last weekend’s Yankees’ series, the bullpen had been trending downward, and in New York, things imploded, with the Big Apple casting its shadow over under performing Tribe relievers.

Cleveland’s bullpen now owns the third worst ERA (5.51) in baseball, while the opposition is batting .258 against Indian relievers (24th overall), while clobbering 16 home runs (tied for sixth-worse in MLB).

While the bullpen has fans calling for Rolaids Relief, it didn’t always used to be that way. Manager Terry Francona was elevated to genius status during the 2016 postseason for breaking from the norm and using his best relievers in high-leverage situations, no matter what inning it was.

The unit continued the trend, post baseball’s best team ERA (2.89) in 2017.

As Tribe fans watch their supposed World Series contending team dip below .500, here’s how the state of the bullpen got so bad.