The Miami Marlins could have up to three future closers in their bullpen right now
It took Brad Ziegler over a decade to reach 100 saves since he wasn’t always a full-time closer.
While Ziegler may not be a prototypical closer, his experience has him in that role currently.
The Marlins feel, however, that they have three relievers right now that could become effective closers someday if given the opportunity.
Kyle Barraclough, Drew Steckenrider and rookie Tayron Guerrero have formed an effective bridge to Ziegler with each showing the tools to potentially close games themselves if called upon.
“You see the way they throw the ball, it seems the only time they get in trouble is when they get themselves in trouble by getting behind or walking guys,” Ziegler said. “When they attack the strike zone and they go after it the three of them are about as good as there is in the game.”
Barraclough, who turns 28 on May 23, has the most experience, having pitched in a setup role for most of the past two seasons.
Walks have been the biggest issue for Barraclough, who has one career save. Barraclough has shown some improvement in that area this season.
After walking 82 batters combined over the past two seasons, Barraclough’s strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.09) is up from last season (2.00) and his strikeouts-per-nine innings (12.4) as well (10.4 in 2017).
Steckenrider, 27, also pitched last season in high-leverage late-inning situations and has one career save.
Steckenrider gave up six runs on four hits in 1/3 of an inning on Thursday against the Braves in what was the worst outing of his career. Prior to that, Steckenrider was putting up the best numbers of any Marlins’ setup reliever with a 1.08 ERA in 16 2/3 innings (two earned runs allowed).
And Guerrero, regarded highly for his fastball velocity topping over 100 mph, has shown much better command of it in recent outings after a slow start.
“Those are really the guys that you could see finishing games,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “If you are in the right situation, 40 [saves] a year isn’t really out of the ordinary.
“You just don’t have a safety net [in the ninth inning],” Mattingly said. “That’s the biggest difference in a guy that goes in there in the ninth instead of the eighth or the seventh. The game’s gonna fall on you one way or the other. That role, you’d like that guy to be able to hold runners. You don’t want to get into a situation where you put guys in scoring position. You want a guy throwing strikes, making them earn what they get.”
Guerrero, 27, worked a scoreless seventh on Friday against the top of the Braves batting order, which includes rising stars Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna and veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman.
Guerrero struck out Albies on three pitches, finishing him off with a swinging strike on a 100.8 mph fastball. Guerrero threw two more fastballs over 100 mph, and was consistently throwing between 97-99 mph as he retired Acuna on a fly out to center and Freeman on a grounder to second.
“With his stuff he’s capable of really beating guys with that fastball, and if he gets to the point where he can really locate it and develops a little bit of a two-seam [fastball] it will give him even more weapons," Mattingly said.
Guerrero, who had only pitched one inning in the majors prior to this season, gave up six earned runs on 10 hits over his first five appearances (5 1/3 innings) in 2018 with nine strikeouts and two walks.
He has since allowed only one run and six hits over his past 11 2/3 innings (12 appearances) while striking out 20 and walking seven.
“I’ve worked a lot on my mechanics day after day and developing better control of my fastball and I’m starting to see my results,” Guerrero said.
“Who wouldn’t like to be a closer? But with all respect to Ziegler, he’s the closer right now and we’re happy he got his 100th save. Of course, that [milestone] would be great to achieve one day.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2018 at 6:52 PM with the headline "The Miami Marlins could have up to three future closers in their bullpen right now."