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Blue Jays Off-Season Recap: Who Will Be The Closer?

Osuna - Blue Jays

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The Blue Jays acquired Drew Storen from the Washington Nationals for Outfielder Ben Revere. There has been a lot of discussion whether Roberto Osuna the current Jays closer, will stay a closer for the Toronto Blue Jays, or will be a setup man, or even potentially a starter.  With spring training coming closer and closer everyday, the Jays still have many decisions to make and some limited routes to choose this off-season.

Roberto Osuna played professional baseball since the age of 16 in Mexico. You often hear the term, “A closer is a failed starter” which means just that, and an example of this is Brett Cecil. This quote can also apply to other roles in the bullpen such as a setup man.

A popular suggestion can be to make Roberto Osuna a starter, keep Aaron Sanchez in the bullpen and make Drew Storen the Jays closer. This method could potentially work out very well, or it could go very wrong. The good thing is, if Osuna gets enough experience as a starter, he could potentially be more comfortable with his pitches, and another positive to this method is if Osuna isn’t a successful starter, he can then go back into the bullpen giving Sanchez a chance to start. A negative to this method is, if Osuna doesn’t pan out as a starter, it can mess with his confidence and make him a less-effective bullpen pitcher.

Another route the Toronto Blue Jays can choose, put Osuna in the setup role, and make Storen the newly acquired pitcher, the Jays closer. When pitchers have to go through situations like this, ( a closer to a setup man ) they aren’t usually the happiest people on the planet. This is because closers have more value then setup men do on the free agent market, and believe it or not, sometimes when this happens, pitchers don’t pitch as well as that situation can get into their head.

There has also been a lot of discussion that Osuna should stay as a closer, especially with his amazing performance from last season, when he saved 10 of 11 games that he appeared in for the Jays during the month of August, and the fact that he is only 20 years old. Also, there have been conversations that Sanchez should be a starter, as he was a starter last year, and excelled near the end of the season before getting injured. Sanchez has also gained 25 pounds of muscle which can easily prevent injury if he decides to be a starter. Finally, there have been many suggestions to keep Storen as a setup man and see how things go from there.

Those are the three possible routes the Toronto Blue Jays can choose with their bullpen, and even though there may be more options the Jays can choose, those are currently the most talked about around Blue Jays nation.

4 Comments

  1. Maximilian Brandon

    February 2, 2016 at 1:29 PM

    1- Nobody is talking about making Osuna a starter this season after pitching ONLY 135 innings the last THREE years.
    2- Osuna “saved 10 of 11 games that he appeared in for the Jays”??!!
    Please check baseball reference. Osuna appeared in 68 games with 20 saves last season.
    3- Sanchez ” excelled near the end of the season before getting injured”
    Actually Sanchez had a torn labrum which ended his starting role and limited him to the the bullpen. Sanchez’s last start was June 5th and he didn’t pitch for the Jays again until July 25th as a reliever.
    4- Storen will be the closer as he has had success in this role, Osuna will be the setup man with Cecil. Osuna will be stretched out this year to prepare him as a starter either in 2017 or 2018.
    I appreciate your enthusiasm as a blogger but PLEASE be a little more accurate in your presentation. Thanks!

    • David Conde

      February 2, 2016 at 1:54 PM

      Thanks for reading Nicolas’ post. It was his first one and thanks for pointing out some things with the post we really appreciate you reading and following our site. Nicolas is 16 years old and has an awesome eye for the game and in time he will be on the same page as some of our other very good young writers.

      Keep following back as we look to have more Blue jays posts and opinions.

      • Maximilian Brandon

        February 2, 2016 at 2:46 PM

        Well, here’s hoping he gets better and better! Best of luck to him and you as well – keep up the good work.

  2. Pingback: Blue Jays Off-Season Recap: Who Will Be The Closer? – Baseball Bloggers Alliance

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