Colorado Rockies bullpen is too big

Something strange has been going on with the Colorado Rockies: their starting pitching has gotten really good. A notable byproduct of that is that the bullpen is not getting much work. And a notable byproduct of that is that the roster isn't being maximized. The Rockies are carrying too many relievers and too few bench options. It might be time for the Rockies to rearrange their roster.

The rotation has effectively prevented runs and eaten up a lot of innings while doing so. They are averaging over six inning an appearance and are allowing only three runs per start. That's right, in the month of May, the average Colorado Rockies start is a quality start. Things are even better since May 11th. Since then, Rockies starters have average 6⅓ innings per start and 2.67 runs allowed.

It might seem arbitrary using May 11th as a cutoff, but there is a reason. The Rockies have three current members of their roster who have not appeared in a game since then. All three are relievers, Scott Oberg (last appearance May 9th), Justin Miller (May 9th) and Christian Bergman (May 10th).

Most likely, you're thinking that that is a good thing as those are the three worst pitchers currently on the Rockies roster, and I definitely agree. But those relievers are on the active roster at the expense of the bench.

The Rockies have been carrying at least eight relievers all season, and at first it seemed necessary, as some of the Rockies starters were struggling to get deep into games and having multiple long- and mop-up men was needed. However, since Jordan Lyles was optioned to Triple-A and Jorge De La Rosa went on the disable list, that hasn't been the case.

When the Rockes brought Daniel Descalso off of the disabled list, they chose to option Ben Paulsen to make room for him on the active roster. In hindsight, it would have been wiser to option Oberg instead, as he has yet to make an appearance since then.

While the Rockies haven't needed those extra arms, there has been time in the past week where a deeper bench would have helped. Currently, the Rockies bench consists of Descalso, Cristhian Adames, Dustin Garneau and Ryan Raburn. Of those options, Raburn is the only decent pinch-hit option. Garneau has an okay bat, but as a backup catcher will almost never be used in pinch-hit duty. Having another solid left-handed bat on the bench, like Paulsen, would be more valuable to this team than carrying any of the three relievers who aren't being used.