Method · late_inning_role@v1

Late-inning role

Saves and holds, set against the reliever's own ERA and WHIP. It asks whether the highest-leverage outs went to the pitchers who were actually getting outs.

The filter, exactly as it runs

gamesStarted = 0

Parameters

min_save_plus_hold 5

Where this is arguable

Saves are a crude leverage measure. A three-run ninth is easier than a bases-loaded seventh, and only one of them is a save.
Availability drives usage. A reliever who pitched yesterday cannot pitch the ninth today, and the box score does not record who was unavailable.
Managers may be protecting a young arm's workload rather than distrusting it, which looks the same from outside.

These are the objections I already know about. If you have a better one, or you think a different threshold tells a truer story, say so and I will re-run it with your numbers and publish what comes back.

Version 1. Older versions are never deleted, so a piece that citeslate_inning_role@v1 stays reproducible after this definition is revised. Source: Data: nflverse (nflfastR), CC-BY 4.0