Archive for Closers

Edwin Diaz and Blake Treinen have stepped up as the elite relievers in 2018. We can’t know how Pedro Strop would have stacked up with The Big Two over a full season, because he was a setup reliever for most of the first half. However, after taking over for Brandon Morrow (biceps) after the All-Star break, Strop has been close to automatic as the Cubs’ closer. Only Diaz, Treinen and Jose Leclerc have had more Roto value among full-time closers in the second half (per CBS rankings).

Though he was not in a save situation, Strop was typically solid on Thursday, keeping the Cubs tied with the Nationals through 1.2 innings. With the Cubs taking the lead in the top of the 10th inning, Joe Maddon elected to have Strop bat in order to bring him back for a third inning. He pulled up with a hamstring injury while running out a grounder, and Randy Rosario had to come in to get the save.
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Torey Lovullo did not have to wait long to test out his new closer committee. One night after Lovullo told reporters that he was replacing Brad Boxberger with a group of relievers, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen worked on preserving a one-run lead against the Rockies with two outs in the seventh inning. That’s when Zack Greinke departed with a runner on second base. Lovullo began with lefty Andrew Chafin, who was set to face Gerardo Parra and Charlie Blackmon. Chafin failed to get the final out against both pinch-hitter Chris Iannetta and Blackmon, as he walked them both. Brad Ziegler had to come in against DJ LeMahieu and do what Brad Ziegler does — get a ground ball out.
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For someone who had managed to pile up 28 saves, Bud Norris never seemed to have a firm grasp on the Cardinals’ closer role. Now he has lost his grip on the job entirely.

On Sunday, Mike Shildt named Carlos Martinez as the team’s new closer, and Norris is being moved to a lower-leverage role, albeit one that will still involve the later innings. Martinez had already been called upon to close out Wednesday’s 7-6 win over the Nationals, as Norris was unavailable, and then he recorded his first save as the team’s official closer on Sunday. His 1-2-3 ninth inning finished off a 5-2 win over the Tigers.
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Thursday’s slate was short on games — just four of them — but it was not totally devoid of closer developments. Two of the contests went to extra innings, and in the case of the Braves-Diamondbacks game, closer failure played a role in the game going beyond regulation. The Braves rolled into the bottom of the ninth inning with a 6-4 lead, but Brian Snitker did not have A.J. Minter to close out the game, since he had thrown 36 pitches in Wednesday’s loss to the Red Sox. Instead, Snitker turned to Jesse Biddle, who entered with a streak of nine straight appearances without an earned run, covering 8.1 innings.
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Heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Nationals, we had already been given an indication that if the Cardinals needed a closer, they were not likely to go with Bud Norris. Mike Shildt told reporters that he was probably going to avoid using his incumbent closer on the night after he had given up Bryce Harper’s game-tying home run, which came the day after he yielded back-to-back 10th inning homers to Eugenio Suarez and Brandon Dixon. In fact, neither Norris nor Carlos Martinez were available for Tuesday night’s game against the Nationals, so Shildt set out to use Jordan Hicks as his closer, should he need one.
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It’s probably a stretch to say that Brad Boxberger is sharing the Diamondbacks’ closer duties, but for the second night in a row, he was not alone in a ninth-inning save situation. In Wednesday night’s series finale against the Giants, Andrew Chafin was brought out to begin the ninth inning against Brandon Crawford. Once Chafin got the strikeout, he gave way to Boxberger, who finished off the 3-1 win. Then on Thursday night, the Diamondbacks had another 3-1 lead to protect — this time, against the Dodgers. Once again, a lefty (Cody Bellinger) led off, and it was Chafin who was assigned to retire him. The déjà vu continued, as Chafin struck Bellinger out, and he was followed by Boxberger, who struck out Chris Taylor and Yasiel Puig.
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When the Nationals and Phillies got together for a Tuesday night game, you figured you were getting some bullpen drama. But for the Red Sox and Marlins? Who needs closers when you have the majors’ highest-scoring team facing off against the 29th-highest scoring team?

Well, it turns out, the Red Sox and Marlins do.
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With Kelvin Herrera having returned from the DL last Tuesday and Ryan Madson (back) and Sean Doolittle (toe) on the mend, it looked as if the injury-plagued Nationals bullpen was finally going to enjoy some stability. That just might not be in the cards, though, as Herrera injured his foot in the Nationals’ 15-0 win over Mets on Sunday. In just his second appearance since getting activated, Herrera hurt himself while fielding a Jose Bautista grounder, and he had to be carted off the field. X-rays taken after the game came back negative, but he is scheduled for more tests on Monday.
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Prior to Thursday’s game in Colorado, fantasy owners may have had few outward reasons to be concerned about Kirby Yates. Since becoming the Padres’ closer after the July 19 trade of Brad Hand to the Indians, he had not blown a save and tallied 20 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. Yates finally got that first blown save on Thursday, when he gave up Ian Desmond’s two-run walk-off homer. Given that it was at Coors Field, owners may be willing to forgive Yates.

While the 31-year-old is not among the most highly-owned closers, not many of his current owners are sitting him. Yates is 59 percent owned in CBS leagues but benched in 14 percent of leagues. On Fantrax, he has a 57 percent ownership rate but is being sat in only 8 percent of leagues.
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After more than a month of not getting many swings and misses and getting dealt a pair of blown saves in the last two weeks, it seemed like Hector Rondon’s days as the Astros’ closer were numbered, particularly in light of the deadline deal that brought Roberto Osuna over from the Blue Jays. On Tuesday morning, A.J. Hinch announced that, indeed, Rondon was out as the team’s primary closer and that Osuna was in.

Hinch was quick to add, however, that Osuna could still occasionally pitch in situations prior to the ninth inning, and one of those occasions arose on Tuesday night. He called for Osuna to warm up in the seventh inning with the top of the Mariners’ order due up, and while the former Blue Jay was not used then, he did come out to pitch the eighth inning with a two-run lead. Osuna did get all three outs by way of strikeouts, but he also allowed three singles, the last of which drove in Denard Span to cut the lead down to 3-2. For at least one night, Rondon got to stay in his accustomed role, closing out the Mariners on nine pitches.
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