Apparently he said after the game that Santana was down, but Santana threw 3 pitches in game 1 vs LAA, 17 in game 2, off day for game 3, and threw 11 on Friday night. I'm sure they have various internal things for resting players, but the math isn't really adding up, especially since Bednar had thrown more pitches in the same games, and though Shelton also mentioned Bednar in his postgame comments, Bednar was warming up in the pen.
Regardless, it's probably better for the anti-front office sentiment and narrative if we have series W vs bad team / Skenes masterclass against Dodgers' 1a/1b ace and then immediate series loss to undercut any possible momentum.
I do have to imagine that something will be done soon, but who knows. Mlod back to the pen and Bubba as 5th starter seems like the easy button to press, though Bubba may not initially be good for a ton more innings than Mlod. I think he's really legit, but IMO there's bound to be some skewed perception with rookie pitching debuts given both Skenes' freakishness as well as how good Jones was all year (even if he maybe tapered towards the latter part of the season). It's still well within the cards that we push the easy button but Bubba comes up and is too wild or has trouble adjusting immediately.
