What To Expect When You're Not Expecting To Play

A short recent history of the last players on the World Series bench.

My exceptional pal R.J. Anderson ranked all 52 players on this year’s World Series rosters. His lowest-ranked players: Brent Honeywell, the Dodgers’ low-leverage reliever; and Trent Grisham, the Yankees’ fifthish outfielder. 

“These 10 players are at the bottom for a simple reason: we don't expect them to play much,” Anderson wrote. “If they do appear more in the World Series than we expected, the odds are it'll come in low-leverage roles that limit their chances to make great contributions.”

This is definitely the plan. But is that how it actually works out? 

Here are 20 players who, over the past 10 years, would probably be considered the worst player on each World Series team’s roster. (Three of these years are based on my own ESPN rankings¹, three are based on Kiley McDaniel’s ESPN rankings, and the earliest four years I went back and made a subjective determination.) They are players who were, basically, theoretically, the last man on their team’s bench or in their team’s bullpen: 

• 2014: Juan Pérez (Giants), Jayson Nix (Royals)

• 2015: Drew Butera (Royals), Kirk Nieuwenhuis (Mets)

• 2016: Chris Coghlan (Cubs), Michael Martínez (Cleveland)

• 2017: Juan Centeno (Astros), Charlie Culberson (Dodgers)

• 2018: Brian Dozier (Dodgers), Blake Swihart (Red Sox)

• 2019: Chris Devenski (Astros), Javy Guerra (Nationals)

• 2020: Alex Wood (Dodgers), Michael Pérez (Rays)

• 2021: Yimi Garcia (Astros), Dylan Lee (Braves)

• 2022: Dalton Guthrie (Phillies) Seth Martinez (Astros)

• 2023: Austin Hedges (Rangers), Luis Frias (Diamondbacks)

These 20 players had a profoundly wide range of experiences: 

The spectators: Centeno, Guthrie, Martinez². 
They didn’t play at all. That isn’t to say they weren’t a factor; the existence of an option, good or bad, can affect a manager’s decisions in other ways. But for simplicity we’ll say they didn’t affect anything. 

The backup catchers: Butera, Swihart, Pérez, Hedges.
A backup catcher in the postseason is in a bit of a strange position. He probably won’t start at all, so in that sense he’s less of a factor than he is in the regular season, when he’ll spell the first-string catcher once or twice a week. However, the heightened stakes of October baseball make it more likely that the starting catcher will be pinch-hit for, or pinch-run for, which means the backup catcher is most likely to play late in games, as a substitute. Usually that’s catching the last inning. Sometimes that’s taking a crucial at-bat in the 12th because you’re the team’s last catching option. So, probably more than any player, the backup catcher has no idea what he’s getting into: Either almost nothing at all, or the biggest moment of his life. (These four catchers totaled seven appearances and three at-bats.)

The low-leverage relievers: Devenski, Lee, Frías, Garcia, Guerra.
Devenski appeared three times; the Astros were trailing by nine, ahead by seven, and down by three (but not for long!) when he entered. This is basically Honeywell’s role this year: If a game gets out of hand, the Dodgers will lean on him to get some outs to save the rest of the bullpen. 

But in the modern game, when a postseason team might pull its ace in the second inning of close games, or go with bullpen games multiple times in a series, no pitcher is safe from high leverage. And, with managers usually riding the hot hands in October, nobody in the bullpen’s role is set, either. Dylan Lee started the World Series as probably the last option in his team’s bullpen; after a very strong appearance in a somewhat-not-close Game 2, he found himself starting Game 4 as an opener. Yimi Garcia ended up appearing four times for his team, twice in medium leverage, holding batters to a .077/.143/.077 line, and finishing with the fourth-highest cWPA³ on the staff. 

The long men: Wood. 
There to eat up multiple innings, especially if the starter leaves really early while the game is still pretty close. Wood pitched twice, two innings each time, without allowing a run. Overall, the six pitchers in this exercise were pretty good: Eighteen innings, five earned runs. 

The backups and platooners and utility men: Pérez, Dozier, Coghlan, Martínez, Culberson, Nieuwenhuis, Nix

Overall, the 10 hitters in this exercise were quite bad: They collectively hit .171/.231/.286. These guys used to get more play under the old rules: They’d be pinch-hitters for the pitcher, or they’d be the double-switchers when a reliever came in, or for NL teams that didn’t have a full-time DH they’d even get starts in AL parks. There are a lot fewer chances to pinch-hit these days, hence the experience of Trent Grisham: He hasn’t appeared in a postseason game yet this year, despite being on the ALCS and ALDS rosters. 

But there are all sorts of ways to find yourself in the middle of the biggest moment of your life. The 20 players I listed above produced, I would say, no fewer than six extremely memorable World Series moments, some cool and some awful: 

6. Charlie Culberson homering in the 12th inning of 2017 Game 2
Culberson came into the game in the 11th inning as part of a double switch. In the 12th, he batted with two outs and the Dodgers down by two. On the second pitch he hit a solo home run to keep the Dodgers alive, and soared around the bases with his arms outstretched like airplane wings.

Strangely, Joe Buck made fun of him for how happy he was—“I kinda feel like he thinks he tied the game?”—but the celebration was pretty appropriate for a role player homering in front of a home crowd in the 12th inning of a World Series game to keep his team alive.

5. Brian Dozier popping out in the bottom of the ninth of 2018 Game 3.
Dozier was pinch-hitting with two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning against Craig Kimbrel. The Red Sox rearranged their outfielders—all three switched positions right before Dozier batted—but Dozier didn’t hit his fly ball nearly far enough for that to matter.

In a moment of dramatic irony, Buck cheerfully moved the game forward: “…to send this game…into the 10th!” And far, far beyond: This would end up being the longest game in history, seven hours and 20 minutes. The Dodgers won it in the 18th, nine innings after Dozier exited it.

4. Drew Butera catching the final pitch of 2015 Game 5.
Salvador Pérez caught 139 games in the regular season, most of any catcher in baseball that season. He then caught all but five of the Royals’ 147 postseason innings, before Ned Yost sent a pinch-runner out to replace him in the 12th inning of Game 5. That pinch-runner would score the run that put the Royals ahead in this clinching game, which meant that, for the final inning and the final pitch it had to be Drew Butera behind the plate, leading the celebration. And he totally botched it: