Bullpen rounding into form, even with Doolittle on the outs

Every team enters every season thinking it has its bullpen plan in place. Who's going to close. Who's going to set up. Who's going to get lefties out. Who's going to pitch out of jams.

And then the season begins, and every team realizes that plan going in isn't going to work and has to start adjusting on the fly.

Truth be told, it takes months for a bullpen to truly take shape. A manager needs to see how different pitchers handle different situations. He needs to see who's healthy and who's hurt. He needs to figure out which contributors from last season have lost their way and which newcomers are ready to take on more responsibility.

The 2020 season doesn't offer that much time, of course. Managers better have things figured out right now, lest they lose too many close games and dig themselves too big of a hole with only six weeks of games still to play.

We're already seeing this with the Nationals, who thought they were going into the season with a formidable trio of veterans in Will Harris, Sean Doolittle and Daniel Hudson but instead saw Harris land on the injured list and Doolittle struggle mightily with velocity and pitch himself right out of any situation of consequence in the process.

Now it's Tanner Rainey setting up Hudson, and that duo has been quite effective, especially during Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Mets. Rainey recorded five outs on a scant 13 pitches. Hudson then made quick work of the ninth inning to record his third save.

But two pitchers do not make a great bullpen (even though the 2019 Nationals somehow pulled that off in October). Manager Davey Martinez needs more arms he can trust.

He's beginning to find them in the form of curveball specialist Ryne Harper (zero runs allowed in six of seven appearances), flamethrower Kyle Finnegan (two baserunners in 3 2/3 innings), versatile veteran Javy Guerra (1.17 ERA in seven outings) and left-hander Sam Freeman (six scoreless games).

And now Harris appears to be on the verge of rejoining the active roster after throwing 17 pitches to live hitters Tuesday afternoon and reporting no issues with his strained groin.

What about Doolittle? Don't the Nationals need their one-time All-Star closer back in high-leverage spots? Sure, it would be nice. And the club continues to hope it will happen, sooner rather than later.

But the Nats bullpen has done a mighty impressive job so far proving it can be successful without Doolittle. The emergence of those other arms as quality late-inning relievers helps. So, too, does Major League Baseball's new three-batter minimum rule.

How does the new rule help? Because it reduces the need for Martinez to play matchups and to need a top-notch lefty to face tough left-handed batters. The right-handers on this staff have to be able to get lefties out. And this group appears to be well-equipped to do just that.

Lefties are 0-for-11 versus Rainey, 1-for-10 versus Hudson, 1-for-10 versus Freeman, 1-for-7 versus Finnegan, 1-for-7 versus Harper, 1-for-7 versus Wander Suero and 3-for-11 versus Guerra.

And this isn't necessarily a small sample size fluke. Yes, Rainey struggled last year against left-handed hitters, but he has grown this year into a far more consistently dominant pitcher who can throw strikes, get ahead in the count and then blow away hitters with his fastball-slider combo.

The others all have been moderately to highly successful against lefties throughout their careers. Harris holds them to a .215 batting average and .563 OPS. Those numbers are .239 and .699 for Hudson, .259 and .670 for Suero. Everyone in the current bullpen has a career lefty opponents' OPS under .734, except for Rainey, who, as noted, has grown into a far more imposing pitcher this season.

The impact of all that? The Nationals may not need to get Doolittle back in top form as desperately as you think they do.

They've got bullpen depth. They've got guys who have shown they can get lefties out. And under MLB's new rules, the need for quality left-handed relievers seems to have gone down.

It may not be the plan Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo envisioned when the season began. But bullpens never do go according to plan. And right now, the Nationals' plan B is proving to be just as, if not more, effective than their original plan A.