[Syd Thrift]

I tend to think of mop up duty and long relief as synonymous. There just aren’t going to be a lot of situations where your starter gets knocked out of the box early but you’re still in the game. Long relief is the multiple innings, come in and pitch so the rest of the pen can rest role, wherever and whenever it is. It tends to be low leverage because, frankly, that’s the spot you tend to put your worst reliever in (I know Earl Weaver said that was a good spot to use rookies, which is the point - they can work through jams and if they don’t, there’s little to nothing on the line except their own job).