Spring Scouting: Reliever Radar

Justin Martinez, Lake Bachar, Beau Brieske

Welcome to “Spring Scouting”, a series which aims to highlight any intriguing Spring Training players or storylines. This article will cover 3 intriguing relief pitchers and their performance this Spring.

Justin Martinez

Justin Martinez enjoyed an excellent 2024 season which saw him post a 2.48 ERA and 2.59 FIP across 72.2 IP on the heels of his electric arsenal. He is back to his old tricks this Spring and already looks in mid-season form. His sinker is sitting north of 100 MPH and his max of 103.5 MPH exceeded all pitches from last year.

Martinez enters 2025 as a key piece of the Diamondbacks bullpen with chatter about his potential as a closer. There is a lot to like about Martinez’s profile. His arsenal features 4 plus offerings, all of which comfortable sit in the upper echelon of their velocity bands. His sinker is his primary fastball which effectively generates whiffs thanks to its blistering speed. His splitter is the most intriguing given its combination of velocity and depth. It returned a gaudy 54.4 Whiff% last season.

If I was crafting an ideal closer, I think their arsenal would look eerily similar to Martinez. The only aspect of his profile holding him back is his poor walk rate. It seems more of a function of his approach as he hardly finds the zone with his splitter, but can still generate chases and whiffs at elite rates. Martinez has all the tools of a high leverage RP and could easily snatch the closer role in Arizona.

Lake Bachar

The Marlines scooped up Lake Bachar after the Padres DFA’d him in September last season and he quickly became a fixture in their bullpen. Bachar enters the 2025 season with a secure role in Miami, and he has made a few alterations to his arsenal that should make him effective.

His fastball hasn’t changed much. It still sits in the mid 90s with above average ride for his release point. The offering grades out as plus and gives him a very solid foundation to build upon. His slider has undergone the most change this spring. First, it looks like he tossing 2 distinct sliders; a gryo and a sweeper. This pales in comparison to last season as his slider had more depth which gave it a 2-plane shape.

The changes in his slider shape give him versatility as its tighter variation acts a platoon-neutral offering while the sweeping variation looks like a true weapon against RHH. He has also exhibited drastic drops in both spin rate and velocity on his splitter.

Bachar fits solely into the category of “one of the best relievers you’ve never heard of” and I am confident that he will escape that classification this season. He has a true 4-pitch mix and all his metrics this Spring have been very encouraging. The Marlins new pitching development team has been making waves in MLB, and Bachar is yet another example.

Beau Brieske

Beau Brieske is in a tight battle for the Tigers closer role. Detroit may ultimately use a closer by committee, but I believe that Brieske has the best stuff of the trio.

Brieske’s arsenal is highlighted by a mid 90s cut-ride fastball that is effective at limiting damage. This Spring he has greatly increased his arm angle, which has trimmed off ~2” of HB from his 4-Seamer. He supplements his strong fastball with a trio of offerings with the most notable being his changeup that gets ~7 MPH of velocity differential from his fastball. The pitch has consistently been his go-to whiff pitch thanks to its combination of vertical separation and immense run.

His slider has returned below average results throughout his career and it seems that he has made a few changes to the offering. He is tossing the slider about 1 MPH harder than last season while getting 4” more iVB. This change pushes the pitch to more of a cutter shape, but there is also another peculiar aspect of his slider this Spring that may indicate Brieske has a new pitch.

There are a cluster of sliders with minimal horizontal break that are averaging 7” of iVB. This group of pitches have only been thrown against RHH and closely mimic the shape of a cutter. The pitch graded out at a 105 tjStuff+ and should be a platoon neutral and damage mitigating offering.

The last piece of Brieske’s arsenal is his sinker which hovers between his 4-Seamer and changeup in terms of shape. Although it was his least used offering in 2024, it returned a season high +4 Run Value according to Baseball Savant. I would not be surprised if he utilized the offering as his primary fastball against RHH in 2025.

Brieske has the stuff of a closer and the arsenal that makes me confident that he could run away with the Tigers closer role. Nonetheless, he has made some intriguing changes this Spring that bode well for his future as a high-leverage arm in Detroit.

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