The notion of a closer’s role has evolved over the years, but there’s never been any doubt of the importance of a reliable late-inning relief strategy. While some organizations prefer more flexible arrangements, quite a few still utilize dedicated ninth-inning men. Settling on a closer isn’t just important to a team and to fantasy baseball gurus. It’s also a factor in a player’s trade and free agent status and — especially — to his potential arbitration earnings.
Here are some early notes on spring closer situations from around the game …
- Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke made rather clear that he views Brandon Workman as the top closing option entering camp, as Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com tweets. The club isn’t making anything official just yet, but the comments from the just-minted skipper give him a strong presumption. That’s not too surprising: the 31-year-old Workman emerged as a premium pen arm last year, when he racked up 71 2/3 innings of 1.88 ERA ball with 13.1 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9. He does have some experience closing out games, having finished 16 Boston wins as part of a committee approach last year.
- For the Pirates, there’ll be no waiting: new skipper Derek Shelton says Keone Kela will handle the ninth, as Adam Berry of MLB.com reports on Twitter. Kela’s time in Pittsburgh hasn’t exactly been smooth, but he’s undeniably talented enough to do the job and will now be challenged with added responsibility as the organization seeks to turn the page on a brutal 2019 season. There were numerous problems on and off the field for the Bucs. By far the most important was the arrest of closer Felipe Vazquez on charges so awful that it’s hard even to think of the matter from a baseball perspective. But the organization has obviously had to make decisions to account for that departure. There is plenty of incentive for Kela, who will be a free agent at season’s end. If things go better for the 26-year-old than for the remainder of the Pirates team, he could also feature as a significant mid-season trade piece.
- The Marlins have set about compiling a new-look bullpen this winter. It seems it’ll be anchored by one of the club’s recent veteran additions. Manager Don Mattingly strongly suggested that Brandon Kintzler is the top choice to function as closer, Craig Mish of FNTSY Sports Radio tweets. The 35-year-old isn’t exactly a prototypical swing-and-miss, capital-C closer type. But he did turn in 57 frames of 2.68 ERA ball last year with a typically strong 54.7% groundball rate. And Kintzler has saved 49 games in his career.
Marlins should utilize Kintzler in a setup role where he’s best suited. Give Guzman, Steckenrider and other younger guys a shot to close.
Uh, closing just would raise the arbs for the young guys while suppressing value on the veteran they’d like to spin for something that might help their next good team possibly in 3 to 5 years.
Boxberger, Kintzler, Tarpley, Garcia, and Venditte should all be given as much innings out of the pen as possible in setup roles.
Those are your likeliest trade candidates at the deadline.
Steckenrider and Guzman aren’t getting dealt this year, plus a full year of steckenrider as closer could net a nice package in 2021, if he performs well..
Stanek should close.
if Urena isnt closing in miami they should trade him
They already said they want him to start games during Spring training. Most likely, in hopes to raise his value, like in .17 and .’18 when he pitched like a innings eating #4 start with Sub 4.00 era., and trade him.
If that fails, which is a high probability, he’ll still be traded for peanuts, or go the pen with the ML ballclub. and hope to enhance his value there.
Urena is a bush league punk
Workman blew 6 saves out of 22 opportunities last season. He will represent a mediocre Red Sox team overall, with poor pitching relative to the rest of the league.
Keep on Trolling! Sox will surprise everyone and Devers will win MVP!
Is it worse to be a troll or a delusional fan?
Why not be both?!
I’m simply being rational as opposed to delusional.
Trolling or not, his point on Workman is spot on. Too many walks to be an effective closer. He better reduce that big time.
Yeah, when Workman was 12, he couldn’t throw a 90 mile an hour fastball either. You think maybe he can improve on past results? Or worked on things over the winter, so he’ll be a better closer? There’s always that.
Yeah, or he’ll continue to be what he was… Because he’s 31 and you comparison to when he was 12 is stupid and not relevant.
He was a decent pitcher even if he wasn’t good at converting saves.
He was still very effective, though.
And of those 6 blown saves, Workman got a win in 2 of them and the Sox also won 2 of the other games.
There s not one person I trust coming out of that bullpen
I agree we won’t go far without substantial pitching changes, but Workman is a great pitcher. Highly overlooked. People still forget he put up 0’s in the 2013 postseason.
I remember what his numbers were in the 2018 post season also. But I still think he’s a very good pitcher.
Miami needs to be winning in a game in order to worry about a closer
If you weren’t a casual, you would know they’ve made a decent effort in FA this offseason and have top prospects coming in the 2nd half.
It was a joke. I’m well aware of what they’ve done this offseason and even if they hadn’t, the worst teams still win 1/3 of their games… This team still isn’t going to be competing for the division this year
Facts, they’re still 2 years away from being a contender but they’re trending in the right direction
I think Workman will be better going into the season knowing he is the Closer.
Kela was actually decent closing games for the Rangers in ’18. Maybe with Hurdle/Searage/Vazquez all gone the Pirates will have better bullpen cohesiveness.
Kintzler is in a similar position as Sergio Romo was last season, if he does well closing he will probably be flipped at the deadline. But Urena should be closing. His stuff doesn’t play over the coarse of 5 or 6 innings but it would be good for one inning.
Many SP’ers nowadays don’t go past the 5th let alone 6th inning. But I’d take that 6ip and 4 ER any day all day from Urena.
These Three teams will have a combine loss total of over 300 in 2020.
Yikes, Pirates losing 120+ games this year?
No the pirates wont even lose 100. Are you insane. 73 wins
I would say the Pirates are a 50-50 shot to lose 100.
Pirate over under was at 71.5 (lol) and got bet down to 69.5, so yeah, them losing 100 seems possible.
The Sox bullpen will be a problem this year. They’ve got a core of setup guys and no closer. I’m not a fan of closer-by-committee, bullpen roles need to be defined.
Mediocre closer befitting a mediocre team.
I am not a Red Sox fan but I see a lot of them as a Rays fan in the northeast. To be fair their bullpen last year was mediocre as well and they have done zero to improve it. They are essentially on the doorstep of a rebuild but won’t go fully due to to many contracts but they are not competing for the east regardless
Everyone with a brain can see this is a reset year. Get under the repeater tax threshold and throw out guys that are somewhat competitive. Gangbusters again next winter looking for great players to fill needs.
Not sure why anyone feels the need to say the Red Sox won’t be competing for a World Series this year. Don’t you see they traded their best player away? Don’t you see they tried to get some young guys for their crummy farm system ?
Gary, my hope is this becomes another 2013 when the team stole a championship. JDM is capable of carrying the team like Papi did.
Yes looie, that would be nice but not sure how that can happen with this Bullpen as everyone is saying. Starting pitching has major questions as well that were not addressed. Thing is we can’t address those unless we want to pay a gazillion dollars in tax the next few years. Let’s reset it. Get financial house in order. Go for it again in 2021. Sounds great to me. Why pay extra tens of millions in tax when that amount can be used on a starter or reliever or everyday player. Could turn out to one extra key guy In 2021 ?
Agreed. The thing is I can’t remember the 13 pen so either I got brain farts or it wasn’t so special either. Team needs Sale to be an on field factor in September. Without him being the true ace, there’s no chance in my view. As he’s never done that, I’m not optimistic. That said, any long term Sox fan will remember Spring optimism that ended in Fall disappointment. Big if but imagine if Sale, Eovaldi and ERod all stay healthy.
Red Sox bullpen will be in-tough if the Rays, Orioles and Blue Jays lineups have improved since 2019. A strong case can be made for the Rays and Jays.
Workman was virtually unhittable least year. Not convinced he will close well but he has ability.
I am scandal overloaded, but right now is the time to bring the Brockstar back to Boston! I
Not only does chaim appear disinterested all offseason, but they assigned brock’s number to someone else.
I’d assume the number assignment speaks even louder than the rest.
Thanks for the memories Brock!
When was his number reassigned? Things change and with him still available, it is still the best non pitching move the team can make.
Just when we all thought that all the ridiculous Brock stuff was over!
Your new GM is moving on…. you should too….
Problem is Rock moving on from Brockstar is as hard as getting away from you…
I think the Sox have a figure they are willing to pay and are willing to leave it out there. I think a 3 year $10 M with some Incentives to a max of $15 M. He’s a great teammate but they have CJ Chatham and Tzu-Wei Lin for the League Minimum.
For who madmc? Holt? I don’t see three years, only two but your three year term would be very fair if not cheap.n given PR and his role in the community, my guess is he can also ink extra cash promoting locally.
It appears the RSox will continue to have Workman as the closer until he fails. Hopefully he will improve on his 2019 season. If Hernandez has the starter temperament we might luck out with the loss of Price.
The fake ball made Workman work away from hitters. As a result he walked more than ever before but his hits and homers per nine innings were otherworldly. If he is able to reduce the walks and not turn them all into hits he will improve. But it’s up to mlb to eliminate the fake ball. The he can adjust. It might work out. We’ll see.
Darwinzon is probably a couple of years away. His stuff is electric but uncontrolled.
Probably should have just stayed with the original deal where Sox acquired Graterol a relief pitcher that throws 100 mph would have been fun to watch