Boston Red Sox Rumors: Craig Kimbrel now the last closer standing
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Indeed, Matt Barnes exhibited the kind of dominance last season that lends itself to the role of closer. He posted a 24.5 percent K-BB percent, just a shade below Ottavino’s own 24.6 percent and better than established closers like Jansen, Felipe Vazquez and Wade Davis.
Brasier’s 1.60 ERA does look a little fluky. His .198 BABIP and 86.2 percent strand rate is probably due for some regression. But Brasier also exhibits terrific control, walking just 5.7 percent of the batters he faced, which makes him far less likely to get himself into jams than talented but erratic relievers like Aroldis Chapman (14.2 percent), Kyle Barraclough (13.9 percent) and free agent Brad Boxberger (13.6 percent).
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Let’s also note that Thornburg briefly emerged as a genuinely dominant closer in Milwaukee (24.7 percent K-BB and 13 saves) in 2016 before being derailed by surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. While a return to form is certainly not guaranteed, he’s now nearly two years removed from the procedure and could absolutely be a factor in higher leverage situations.
Wright, being a knuckballer and, until recently, primarily a starter would seem an odd inclusion in the list of potential closers. But his numbers during September and October of last season, when he posted a microscopic 0.66 ERA over 13.2 IP, suggest he might actually be a unique and effective late inning weapon, though his underlying metrics (8.6 percent K-BB and 4.04 FIP) also suggest he was pretty lucky. Still, this is a franchise that once had Tim Wakefield saving games, so anything is possible.
An intriguing dark horse might be Heath Hembree. He has better swing-and-miss stuff than people realize. His 14.2 percent swinging strike rate ranked alongside Jeurys Familia and Alex Colome and well ahead of Jansen, Hand and David Robertson. Of course, it takes more than pure stuff to close and Hembree would need to cut his 10.8 percent BB rate to earn a shot at a higher leverage role.