What Astros, Rangers can teach us about building bullpens - ESPN

The Houston Astros needed to find help for their bullpen over the winter. They did not need a closer, not really — but they signed one anyway.

And not just any closer. The Astros landed Josh Hader, the top free agent reliever, and perhaps the game's best current fireman, with the largest present-value contract a reliever has ever signed. Now they have two closers, though it will be Hader who gets the bulk of the save opportunities that were once the domain of Houston's incumbent closer, Ryan Pressly.

«Our main offseason target was to strengthen the bullpen,» Astros GM Dana Brown said during the spring, summing up an otherwise relatively quiet winter for Houston.

Sounds good, but locking in the game's best closer isn't the only way to go about improving a relief corps. Here's a closer look at how some of the league's best bullpens have been built, as well as a deep dive into the strategy of the Astros — and their opponents this weekend, the AL West rival Texas Rangers.

The Astros-Rangers rivalry has become one of baseball's best, heating gradually ever since Houston moved over to the American League, fueled by a few on-field disagreements. Things simmered last summer thanks to the Rangers' rise, as the two combatants vied for the AL West crown all summer. Finally it boiled over in October, when the Astros and Rangers played a seven-game ALCS.

Does it feel like stars hitting the IL is bringing down your favorite team more than others? Now we have the math to prove it.

Bradford Doolittle »

Now that rivalry extends into the realm of the baseball wonks and the area of bullpen architecture, thanks to their juxtaposed approaches to the winter.

The Hader contract is the second-largest free agent deal Houston has ever doled out