C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

PHOENIX – If there was one thing the Reds felt good about going into 2014, it was their bullpen.

A highly paid, experienced unit, it was supposed to be a strength – not just Aroldis Chapman, but also Jonathan Broxton, Sam LeCure, J.J. Hoover, Manny Parra, Alfredo Simon and even the possibility of a healthy Sean Marshall. The were expected to be good, and were paid to be good. That group accounted for nearly $27 million of the payroll.

The result was a disaster. The Reds bullpen put up a 4.11 ERA, 26th in Major League Baseball and second-worst in the National League.

If adding offense is concern No. 1 for Walt Jocketty, helping out the bullpen is No. 2.

"It is an area we feel we need to improve," Jocketty said.

The problem is, it may be the toughest evaluation to make due to the volatility of middle relievers.

"You see stuff out of reliever that sometimes it plays and sometimes it doesn't. The same pitcher may have the same two pitches and he's effective last year and not as effective this year, and you try to get back to what made him effective, why he was ineffective and how you can help him," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. "Purely at the Major League level, bullpens are the toughest to predict and the toughest to build."

Because of the difficulty of finding those relievers, many teams subscribe to the belief of quantity – signing several arms and seeing what sticks.

The Reds found Manny Parra that way, this past season Pat Neshek was taken off the scrap heap by the Cardinals and turned into an All-Star.

"You have to take some shots on guys, you understand it is a volatile – probably the most volatile part of a club – just keep running numbers at it – different looks, different stuff, different backgrounds, different pedigrees," Huntington said.

That's something the Reds will likely do this offseason, Jocketty said. The more low-price, low-risk arms, the more depth there is to make a move if one arm doesn't work out.

"I think you have a chance to get lucky in the bullpen, you can look at the guy who had a bad year and come back and have a great year," said Braves vice president John Hart. "I think the ability to take guys with big arms or a big out pitch, in an ideal world, you wouldn't have to have matchups, but if you're going to have a righty-lefty matchup early in a game, there's some value – there's a lot of ways to construct it, but I think at the end, the more power arms you have, the better chance you have. The more trick pitchers you've got, the better chance you have."

The Reds are also hoping to see healthy seasons out of Marshall and Parra, while hoping Hoover is better than he was in 2014. A year ago at this time, Hoover was being mentioned as a potential replacement for Aroldis Chapman if he were moved to the rotation.

"A lot of times it's hard to predict what guys are going to do one year to the next and the bullpen is one of the toughest areas to predict because it is – who would have thought Hoover would have had the record he had this year?" Jocketty said. "He pitched well, the end result just wasn't that good. We know he's better than that."

There's also the possibility of using some of the team's younger starters to pitch out of the bullpen. Jocketty has repeatedly said that the team wants Cuban right-hander Raisel Iglesias to be a starter in the future, but he could pitch out of the bullpen in 2014 and then go to the rotation in 2015 when there could be several openings among the team's top five starters. Left-hander Tony Cingrani could do the same.

Of course, that was the plan with Chapman, but it never came to be as he eased into the closer's role and has stayed there pretty much ever since.

The Cardinals, however, have had success doing this, most notably with a young Adam Wainwright, but also Carlos Martinez in recent years, as well as Tyler Lyons, Joe Kelly and Michael Wacha to a more limited extent.

"When you look at your starting rotation depth, that's something you look at," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said. "Sometimes when you have seven or eight competing for five, you can roll a couple over into the bullpen that add an extra element that really changes the dynamic of your bullpen."

That's something Mozeliak said he prefers to do with young pitchers, not experienced starters – and something you really only want to do once.

"It gets their feet wet at the Major League level, gives them some experience, allows them to understand what big league pitching is all about," Mozeliak said. "We're not afraid of that model at all. I think the yo-yo effect of doing it every other year won't work."