Picking a Closer: The Blue Jays Have a Good Problem on Their Hands

Given their choice, many pitchers would not covet a ticket to the American League East. But here stands Drew Storen, talking like he has found nirvana in a foreign land. Perhaps Storen harbours a twisted view of baseball utopia. Or maybe, given what he's been through during the past five years, he just figures he's ready for anything.

"The NL East is great and everything, but nothing's like the AL East—stacked lineups and small ballparks. It's going to be a lot of fun," he says, sounding entirely serious.

The Blue Jays hope he's right. To get him, they traded Ben Revere, their latter-day leadoff hitter, to Washington. The Nationals kept giving Storen the closer's job, then snatching it away in favour of others deemed more worthy—Tyler Clippard, then Rafael Soriano, then Jonathan Papelbon.

Last year, after Storen logged a 1.73 ERA and 29 saves over the first four months, Washington decided to trade for Papelbon, who proceeded to mark his territory by choking teammate Bryce Harper in the dugout, capping a self-destructive second half that left the once-favoured Nats looking up at the Mets.

With Papelbon returning, Storen insists he didn't lobby for a trade, but he was not inconsolable when it happened. It was the new administration's only offseason move that generated universal acclaim from the Blue Jays' uneasy fan base.

Of course, it probably figured that Storen would walk right into another who's-gonna-close situation. The Blue Jays found a surprise closer last year in Roberto Osuna, whose age (20) matched his save total. Storen, 28, has notched 90 saves and knows a good year as the Jays' closer would boost his payday when he hits the free-agent market after the coming season. (And Storen can be confident he needn't worry again about Soriano, who signed a minor-league deal with the Jays on Sunday after imploding with the Cubs last year.)

Storen insists it doesn't matter to him whether he closes or sets up. Osuna says the same thing: more on that later. Management has offered no clues to either of them.

"No, and that's fine," Storen says. "I really don't expect them to say anything. It's really early and there's a lot of things that could happen. But if you're in the bullpen and you don't want to close, you shouldn't be there. Everybody wants to close. Why wouldn't you? But it's such a group thing down there. That's really what's important, having a good group. It's really our own little team down there. You need your closer and setup man, but you also need guys that can hold two-run deficits, too."

Storen won't be assigned two-run deficits. He has sterling credentials as a late-inning man. In 2011, he posted 43 saves, then underwent surgery to remove a bone chip in his elbow and missed the first half of 2012 while Clippard took over. The following year, the Nats signed Soriano to close, and got two good years out of him. Then Soriano signed with the Cubs, so Storen returned to his old job last year—until Papelbon came along.

According to stories out of Washington, Storen was sorely displeased. His performance declined, and early in September, after a rough game against the Mets, he broke his thumb when he angrily slammed his locker shut, ending his season. In 19 games as the setup man, his ERA was 7.13. As closer, he stranded 85 percent of his baserunners. Post-Papelbon, he allowed half of his baserunners to score.

In his tenure as a closer in Washington, that six-week stint was an aberration. But it was so unusual that media types keep asking him what on earth happened.

Generally, Storen is an easygoing, upbeat sort, and he holds that tone when asked that question for the umpteenth time this spring. After knowing all season exactly when he would enter games, he suddenly found himself warming up far more often, leading to a degree of fatigue, which in turn, undermined his effectiveness. On the other hand, he says he should have figured it out.

"I wasn't hitting my spots," he says. "And I threw quite a bit there. I think it was just the amount of times I threw. When you set up, you tend to get up a lot more than when you're closing, so I had to change my routine a little bit. But I'd done it before. It just came down to not executing. If you're a little bit off, and you're throwing late in games, you're going to get beat."

In early bullpens and live BP sessions, Storen has been impressive. He complements a mid-90s fastball with a slider, sinker and changeup. A two-step pause as he raises, then lowers, his right leg to start his delivery adds a little deception to the mix. No matter which role he fills to start the season, the Blue Jays can hardly go wrong.

Now, over to Osuna. He is in no hurry to be a starter. Last year was his first full pro season, and he pitched more than twice as many innings (68) as he had in three minor-league seasons. He admits he was weary by the end, and considering the Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2013, he began to think about the strain he was putting on his elbow.

"I told [management] I won't start this year, maybe next one," Osuna said. "I don't think I'm ready 100 percent to be a starter yet because I don't want to worry about my Tommy John, to put my elbow in a risk again. I prefer to be a reliever for at least one more year, throw more innings, like probably 75, 80 innings in the regular season, and then see what happens for next year."

It wasn't just the workload in games that tired him out. More often than many closers, Osuna sometimes warmed up for a save situation, then watched the Jays' offence extend the lead with a late uprising, forcing him to sit down.

"When you have a lineup like we do, and you have a one-run lead or two in the eighth or ninth inning, anything can happen," he said with a smile.

Osuna said he prefers to be a one-inning guy. Like Storen, he insists he'll be happy in any late-inning assignment.

"Being honest, I don't care about the role," he said. "The only thing I want is to win."

So how do they pick a closer? Storen has the bigger sample size and an impressive résumé in the role. Osuna was very good last year, although high pitch counts occasionally badgered him in the late stages. During the offseason, manager John Gibbons seemed to suggest he might assign Osuna multiple innings from time to time, the better to stretch him out in preparation for a rotation role in 2017.

But when asked Sunday about that, Gibbons seemed conflicted, leaving some observers to wonder whether he worries about putting too much stress on Osuna, who underwent Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2013.

"I think when guys throw a lot of innings out of the bullpen, what gets them is they're [warming] up all the time," Gibbons said. "They might be doing it back-to-back or three days in a row; that's what really takes a toll. You could probably get more innings out of them if you said they throw every third day or something like that, but you can't really do that.

"But they're all different. Some guys hold up a lot better than others. Nobody knows why. I don't know where [Osuna] ends up in the future, anyway. I think he could be a good starter. We know he's a very good reliever."

So is Storen. It remains a small mystery which factors will be in play as the Blue Jays ponder their decision during spring training, but they will closely monitor Osuna and, according to Gibbons, won't let him work more than one inning at a time, at least until very late in the exhibition season.

The safest choice? Make Storen the closer and Osuna the setup man while confining each of them mainly to one-inning assignments. That would put less pressure on the arm of a hard-throwing 21-year-old whose future role won't be determined until the 2016 season is over.