Things are tense in the Baltimore-Washington corridor these days.
The Nationals’ closer carousel keeps turning, as they placed Shawn Kelley on the 10-day disabled list Friday with a lower back strain. As it was, we hadn’t seen Kelley in a game since April 29 due to being sick, and just as he was healthy enough to return, he started feeling tightness in his back Friday afternoon.
In a largely boring night in Closerville, one of the more notable developments occurred in a non-save situation. Twins manager Paul Molitor decided to bring Brandon Kintzler in with a four-run lead in the top of the ninth against the A’s, and the closer got himself into a bases-loaded, no-out situation. Matt Joyce brought in a run with a single, keeping the bases loaded, but Kintzler prevented further damage by getting a force out at home, followed by a double play ball.
It’s not this near-meltdown that is significant, but rather the problems with Kintzler that this outing highlighted. Though he doesn’t profile as a typical closer, Kintzler has had success in the past due to good control and strong ground ball tendencies. He has had neither this season, at least not consistently. Meanwhile, he has allowed oodles of contact, sporting a 5.3 percent swinging strike rate.
Two of the more noteworthy closer developments occurred off the field on Wednesday. Terry Collins told the Bergen Record that Jeurys Familia has been returned to the closer’s role. This means the end to his phase-in period following his 15-game suspension for a violation of Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Collins had used Familia in non-save situations for his first three appearances. This also means the end of Addison Reed’s solid run as the Mets’ closer, which resulted in four saves but also a loss to the Marlins in which he gave up a walk-off home run to J.T. Riddle to break a ninth-inning tie.
In his 2 2/3 innings to date, Familia has six strikeouts and 11 swinging strikes, but he has also walked four batters. If I own Reed, I’m hanging on to him if possible, at least until Familia shows that he will be reliable now that he is back in the closer’s role.
On Wednesday, I wrote in this space that if there were one member of the Nationals’ closing tandem to speculate on, it should be Koda Glover. Two days later, Dusty Baker proved me wrong. As reported by the Washington Post, the Nationals’ manager told Kelley he was the team’s closer, though he will still give way to Glover on occasion in order to preserve his elbow. While Baker told reporters later that both Kelley and Glover would close games, he indicated that Kelley would get the larger share of chances.
That was made apparent when Baker brought Kelley in to preserve a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Mets, just one night after he got the save in the series finale against the Braves. It was also Kelley’s third save in four days. He threw a perfect inning and has now held the opposition scoreless in his last six appearances, covering five innings.
Koda Glover or Shawn Kelley? Shawn Kelley or Koda Glover? The intrigue began Tuesday night when Blake Treinen loaded up the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Braves, walked in a run to cut the Nationals’ lead to two and had to be bailed out by Kelley. Dusty Baker told reporters after the game he needed to fix the Nationals’ closer situation, and on Wednesday, he made his move. He announced that Glover and Kelley would share the closer role.
It’s not all that surprising that, despite closing out Tuesday’s win, Kelley is not getting the role full-time. For one, there were members of the Nationals coaching staff who wanted Glover to be the closer coming out of spring training. There were also worries within the organization that Kelley was not durable enough to pitch on consecutive days. So despite the fact that Kelley has years of outstanding peripherals and had success during his brief stint as the Nationals’ closer last summer, a share of the job was likely going to be the most he would get.
On a night that didn’t have much bullpen drama, Francisco Rodriguez had a notably messy save. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, it seemed unlikely that the Tigers would have a reason to employ Rodriguez in this game, but William Cuevas loaded the bases and allowed a one-out Yandy Diaz RBI single. Rodriguez inherited a five-run lead but a bases-loaded situation. After striking out Abraham Almonte, he coughed up a pinch-hit grand slam to Lonnie Chisenhall.
Rodriguez protected the one-run lead that remained by striking out Austin Jackson, notching his fourth save in five tries, but he lifted his ERA to 5.40. On just about any other team, this could be cause for a controversy, but Rodriguez does not have any real rivals for the job at this point. Justin Wilson has been effective and could be a candidate if Rodriguez has protracted struggles. Joe Jimenez carries the label of “closer of the future,” but he was optioned to Triple-A Toledo earlier on Friday to make room for Cuevas, who was promoted from Toledo.
With the Rangers heading into the final frame with a 6-3 lead against the Angels on Wednesday night, it looked as if we were going to get our first peek at what the future of the Rangers’ ninth inning will be. Sam Dyson and Matt Bush (shoulder) were unavailable, and with Jose Leclerc throwing the last four pitches of the eighth inning (including a three-pitch strikeout of Mike Trout), he was primed to come out for the ninth. Tony Barnette was an option, too.
The Rangers tacked on two more runs in the top of the ninth, so the save chance was gone if a new reliever was brought in. Instead, Leclerc stayed in the game and finished it, yielding only an Andrelton Simmons single, notching two strikeouts and recording the five-out save. Jeff Banister still thinks Dyson could be the team’s closer, but if Leclerc gets some additional save chances in place of Dyson or Bush, it could be hard to take him out of the role.
• The only blown save by a closer in Friday’s games was by Francisco Rodriguez, and his occurred in the eighth inning. Rodriguez entered the game with the Tigers clinging on to a 4-2 lead in the top of the eighth with runners on first and third. Pablo Sandoval took Rodriguez’s 0-2 offering over the wall in left center field, giving the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. But all was eventually well for the Tigers, who got two runs back in the bottom of the eighth, followed by a scoreless ninth. Rodriguez made things interesting in that inning, too, allowing a Dustin Pedroia single and a Mitch Moreland double, but he stranded them and got the win.
There were some ninth-inning adventures on Wednesday, but of the 10 relievers with save chances in the final frame, eight managed to come through.
Then there was Sam Dyson. In last night’s bullpen report, Benjamin Pasinkoff made note of Dyson’s meltdown in the Rangers’ season opener against the Indians, as well as his diminished velocity. Whereas Dyson averaged 93.9 mph on his fastball on Monday, this time around he raised it up to 94.7 mph. However, he lost the strike zone, walking Abraham Almonte and Carlos Santana back-to-back, and throwing strikes on just 10 of his 22 pitches. Francisco Lindor made Dyson pay for the walks, hitting a grand slam that left him with a blown save.
Others have beat me to the punch on predicting great success for Daniel Norris and throwing cold water on Robbie Ray, but I’m guessing no one has yet to argue that Tom Koehler will outperform a pitcher who is being drafted among the top 60 starters. Here is my case for Koehler and nine other bold predictions with slightly lower degrees of difficulty.