How Ex-Starters Became Bullpen Weapons

Published June 13, 2026

Call to the Pen

Texas is closing games with a lefty who lost a rotation battle in March. Colorado's most talked-about trade chip is a former rotation fixture now throwing 99 mph in relief. Tampa Bay runs an opener-and-bulk assembly line, and the Mets' "fifth starter" technically pitches out of the bullpen. The pattern across all of them is the same: short stints turn surplus starters into velocity boosted leverage arms, and the multi-inning save is creeping back into the game.

You can see the shift clearly based on when these pitchers enter games. Bulk arms come in around the second inning, swingmen in the fifth, and converted leverage arms in the seventh and eighth.

---

The conversions that stuck

The poster case. A longtime rotation fixture in Colorado, Senzatela has reinvented himself in relief: 20 games, a 2.11 ERA, and an average entry point around the seventh inning. This is leverage work, not mop-up duty, with two holds and three saves on six chances. The stuff plays up in the shorter stints, too. His four-seamer averages 97 mph and has topped out at 99.3.

He is also 6-0. Wins are a noisy number for a reliever, but six without a loss, working that late in games, is the kind of line that gets a contender's attention.

There is reason for it. Senzatela is in the final year of a five-year, $50.5M deal with a $14M club option for 2027, and on June 4 MLBTR called him "perhaps the most obvious relief trade candidate" in baseball. Denver Sports still calls him the Rockies' most reliable reliever.

The one caveat is recent. All three of his blown saves have come in the last 15 days, including a June 5 game against Milwaukee when he entered the eighth with a two-run lead and gave up three runs.

Latz competed for the Rangers' fifth-starter job all spring, lost it to Kumar Rocker, and has wound up handling the ninth more than anyone in Texas since mid-April. The line is loud: a 1.69 ERA across 25 appearances, 10 saves on 12 chances, four of them in the last 15 days, with an average entry just shy of the eighth.

He closes like a long man, with two-inning saves on May 10 and June 5 already on his ledger. One more would make him the first Ranger with four in a single season since Jeff Russell in 1991 (MLB.com), even as the club says it wants to limit his multi-inning work.

His 10th save came June 10, a scoreless inning out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in Kansas City that had MLB.com calling him a "closer in all but official title since mid-April." His fastball averages 94.3 and has reached 98.1. As teammate Jakob Junis put it: "He's gross. He's throwing 98 and his stuff is biting."

The other half of a late-inning pair Texas built entirely from rotation surplus, with Robert García and Chris Martin both on the IL. Junis, a veteran career starter, owns a 1.57 ERA over 24 outings with four saves and six holds, entering around the seventh and eighth.

The Rangers rest him several games at a time, then turn him loose for multiple innings. On June 10 in Kansas City he threw two scoreless frames with three strikeouts. "He was feeling really fresh," manager Skip Schumaker said afterward.

A converted starter at the center of San Francisco's no-defined-closer setup. Winn has a 3.23 ERA across a workload-heavy 29 appearances with 11 holds, making him one of the busier relief arms in the league this year.

The Giants optioned former closer Ryan Walker to Triple-A in May, with reporting framing it as a chance to stretch him out for multi-inning work (NBC Sports Bay Area). It is a length-first approach that Winn already fits.

---

The in-betweeners

Squeezed out of the Milwaukee rotation, Patrick is the swingman whose log refuses to sit still. A 2.73 ERA over 18 games, three saves on four chances, and an average entry around the fifth: this is Swiss-army usage, not bullpen purgatory.

One recent stretch tells the story. He threw a four-inning relief outing on June 3, picked up a one-inning save in the 12th on June 8, and took a blown save on June 10 after entering the seventh, all bracketing a spot start back on May 27.

His path back to the rotation looks blocked. Milwaukee's projected post-Woodruff rotation reportedly does not include him, and Brandon Woodruff, who threw a rehab outing June 9, should be back before July (Reviewing the Brew).

The clearest "fifth starter who is technically a reliever." Manaea opened the year in the Mets' bullpen after a March move and was named David Peterson's rotation replacement in late May (SNY). The catch: he is the rotation turn, but he enters behind an opener.

He came in during the second inning in each of his last two outings, going five innings on June 1 behind opener Austin Warren and four on June 7 behind Huascar Brazoban. That is textbook bulk relief, and his 5.56 ERA across 14 games, six finished with no save situations, reflects a role measured in innings, not leverage.

The cautionary tale. López moved to the Atlanta pen on April 26 to work through mechanical issues, a move framed as temporary. His 4.06 ERA and lone hold across 15 games (the average entry is pulled earlier by two April starts) capture a converted starter without a defined relief role, and his fastball averages 94.1, topping out at 97.4.

What low-leverage conversion looks like is right here: since mid-May he has made seven straight relief appearances entering between the seventh and ninth innings, nearly all while trailing or in lopsided games. On June 4 he entered the ninth down a run against Toronto and gave up four runs.

The role does not look temporary anymore. SportsTalkATL reported June 5 that he is not returning to the rotation and that the Braves seem uncommitted to a set bullpen role, and the AJC called him inconsistent since the move.

One to watch, with the firm caveat that this is speculation, not a move that has happened. Verlander has made a single appearance in 2026, is on the 60-day IL, and is currently building back up on a Triple-A Toledo rehab assignment.

The squeeze is coming. With Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize returning, MLB.com has floated that Detroit could soon carry seven starters and weighed a six-man rotation or extended rehab. Relief is the unspoken third option.

---

The opener-and-bulk economy

This is where the role stops being a fallback and becomes the plan. A handful of teams are now designing innings from the second pitcher onward, and one club has turned it into a production line.

The purest bulk-reliever profile in the group. Mlodzinski was bumped from the Pittsburgh rotation by the team's starting depth, "much to his chagrin" per MLBTR, and his average entry inning of 1.92 is the earliest of anyone in this piece.

He alternates spot starts with three-to-five-inning relief stints, including a four-inning save on June 4 (entering the sixth with a five-run lead) and 3.2 innings on June 10.

Washington's multi-inning fireman. Lord owns a 2.30 ERA across 20 games with five holds and a recent run of four straight outings of four-plus outs.

That stretch included his first career save, a two-inning, scoreless save on June 6 against Arizona, and 2.2 scoreless innings for the win on June 9. He now sits in the Nationals' fluid closer ladder.

---

For more on how these bullpens stack up, see the Mid-May Closer Report, the Bullpen ERA Rankings, and the Season-Long Bullpen Power Rankings. Click any team name above for the full bullpen breakdown.

-- InsidethePen Staff