Tampa Bay Rays players sit in the bullpen under mostly empty seats during a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Rays in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)AP

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It’s a lazy afternoon in the visiting clubhouse, hours before game time, and the conversation is about bullpens.

As Detroit Tigers reliever Michael Fulmer starts running through the pros and cons of various American League facilities, teammate Alex Lange walks by.

“Langer, what are some good bullpens?”

Lange, caught off guard, starts thinking of the league’s top relievers. He could even make a case for the Tigers who, despite their rough start to the season, have an impressive 2.86 relief ERA.

“No, I mean the actual bullpens,” Fulmer says. “The holding area for pitchers.”

There’s a long silence as both pitchers start to think.

Lange shakes his head. “Too small of a seating area.”

“Kansas City’s good,” offers Lange.

After a few more moments of thought, Lange has a decision: “New York is probably the best.”

“That’s what I was leaning toward,” Fulmer agreed.

So Yankee Stadium is the winner. But why?

What factors go into making a great bullpen?

“First of all, it’s got to have a bathroom,” Fulmer begins emphatically. “All we do down there is drink water. We drink, drink, drink the first five innings. There’s not much to do down there besides hydrate.”

Other traits of a good bullpen? A small area for storing equipment; a nice selection of Gatorades and Red Bulls and waters; and a room for privacy in case a pitcher needs to rub balm on his shoulder or get treated with a massage gun.

The Fulmer remembered one more essential one. “A good TV to watch the game on. We don’t have the best line of sight.”

Tropicana Field doesn’t even really have a bullpen, but it does have a great line of sight.

That’s why the conversation has come up today. Tropicana, where the Tigers are facing the Tampa Bay Rays, is one of only two stadiums left in the major leagues without a true bullpen. Pitchers just warm up in foul territory down the base lines.

It once was common. Now it’s a novelty.

“Most of the guys aren’t a big fan of that,” says veteran reliever Jacob Barnes. “It’s blocked off now, but fans used to be able to touch you, which is not good.”

Barnes said pitchers feel more “on-stage” when they’re out on the field, so they don’t feel as comfortable doing elaborate warm-up routines that include running and stretching. They might also be hesitant to work on a certain pitch for fear of accidentally launching it into the infield.

“If you do that, everybody stops and turns around to look at you,” Barnes says.

At this comment, fellow reliever Andrew Chafin interjects: “There’s also an advantage to that.”

Need a little extra time to warm up? Ooops! That pitch just got away from me.

Tampa Bay and Oakland are the last two bullpen holdouts, largely because of stadium design rather than any aesthetic choice. Relievers have been relocated to behind-the-fence bullpens in San Francisco and Wrigley Field in Chicago in recent years.

“San Francisco used to be bad. There was no bench down there, so you had to sit in the dugout,” Barnes said. “Then when they said, ‘Jake, go get ready!’ you would run from the bullpen to the dugout to get loose, because there was no actual seating area.

“Everybody sees you. Your guy is pitching, he’s struggling and he sees the reliever sprinting out of the dugout like, ‘Here we go.’”

That’s one of many reasons an open bullpen is just awkward.

“You’re trying to do your job, but the starting pitcher clearly hears you and sees you and it’s just a bad vibe all around,” Barnes said.

The other factor that only relievers have to worry about: When they’re seated on the field, they have to be riveted to every pitch. If not, they’re liable to get their head taken off by a line drive.

“In other bullpens if you’re going through reports or something like that, you can actually focus on that,” Chafin said.

Relievers are a different breed, and bullpens are their unique habitat. Many find the vibe in the dugout to be stifling.

“The bullpen is definitely a totally different environment than the dugout,” Chafin said. “I don’t know exactly why. Usually, for lack of a better way to say it, they’re more uptight and anxious in the dugout. Whereas in the bullpen, it’s like we’re just out there on our own, messing around and trying to keep our minds right to be able to go out and go from basically being a fan to pitching in the game.

“I’ve got to keep it light, keep it fun. I couldn’t sit there and be serious and locked in the whole time or I would lose the edge that I have. I feel like we’ve only got so much capacity for super-focus, if you will. I just save it all for the five to ten minutes I actually need it.”

Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Andrew McCutchen (22) talks with relief pitcher Jose Alvarez in the bullpen between innings of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)AP

Ask the relievers: What’s your favorite MLB bullpen?

Barnes: “I enjoy Seattle. It’s a cool little spot. You can see the field. The fans are close to you, so there’s a little interaction, which we normally don’t like, but they’re pretty good about it out there. You can see the whole game. And it’s a great ballpark. I’ll go with Seattle.”

Fulmer: “New York (Yankee Stadium) is pretty good. They have a spot you can sit inside. They have a bathroom in there.”

Lange: “New York is probably the best.”

Chafin: “I’ve seen all of them but Baltimore and Boston. San Diego is nice. It’s kind of tucked away. I used to really like Denver until they put up the extra fence in front. You used to be able to sit there above the outfield fence, overlooking the field. It was seet. Now you’ve got to look through a chain-link fence, so it’s turned back into a cage. Atlanta has the benches off to the side where you can sit up and see over. I hate looking through a fence to watch a game. I won’t really watch the game that close because if I sit there and stare through a chain link fence, you get a headache. I can’t have that.”

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