Charles LeClaire – USA TODAY Sports
Raise your hand if you predicted that a) the Pittsburgh Pirates would be first place at the end of April with a struggling Andrew McCutchen and b) that Jason Grilli would lead the National League in saves. Okay, I obviously cannot see who raised their hand or not but I am guessing no one did.
Grilli is really proving that 30 is the new 20 in 2013. The often traveled reliever has finally found a permanent home with the Pirates as the team’s closer. Many scoffed at the notion that the 36-year-old veteran, who had five career saves entering the season, could become a successful closer. Well, who is the one scoffing now?
Grilli is destroying the narrative that closers need closing experience in order to be successful, which is a very good thing for the game of baseball. Seriously, outside of runs batted in being an indicator on how good a hitter is, the closing narrative is the worst in baseball.
Sure, some players simply cannot close games — I get that. But for every LaTroy Hawkins there is a player like Grilli. Nothing indicated that Grilli would become a dominant closer. After all, he’s a journeyman reliever that has had only two quality seasons under his belt. But alas, here stands Grilli as an elite closer in 2013.
So can teams finally stop overpaying closers? There is absolutely no reason to pay a guy like Rafael Soriano the kind of money he is making when you can find it at a minimal price elsewhere. But I suppose that would require some outside the box type of thinking, so I am probably pleading upon deaf ears.
