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Monday, May 22, 2006
Close chapter on Reitsma
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Chris Reitsma is a nice guy, but he’s not a closer. Because he’s a nice guy – and, to be frank, because there isn’t an obvious fallback – the Braves keep asking him to get the last three outs. They need to stop asking.
Nothing undoes a team’s psyche like a shaky closer. Even having lousy starting pitching doesn’t carry quite the same weight: If it’s down 5-0 after two innings, a team still feels it has a chance to recover. It’s different when a closer fails. A game that was supposed to have been won suddenly isn’t. A night that was supposed to end with handshakes dissolves into a puddle of coulda/shoulda.
Reitsma has had one good month as a Braves’ closer — July 2005. He has blown half his save chances since. The Braves went to Arizona having won nine of 11, and a large reason why was that Reitsma had been handed only one save situation in those 11 games. (To his credit, Reitsma did work a tidy 1-2-3 ninth to earn a save Monday night.) But a team cannot run forever on bottom-of-the-ninth drama. Over the long haul, a team with any aspirations of playing in October has to have a closer it can trust.
The Braves, sad to say, do not. Last season, Bobby Cox demoted Reitsma for Kyle Farnsworth, who’s no great shakes as a closer himself, and it’s past time for Reitsma to be reassigned again. The weekend was the clincher. Twice Cox summoned Reitsma in Arizona with a ninth-inning lead, and twice the manager was forced to have someone warming in the bullpen behind his nominal closer. When that happens, a team knows it no longer has a closer.
Reitsma’s numbers are bad for any pitcher but beyond the pale for the most important component of a staff — 33 baserunners in 19 2/3 innings, only 10 strikeouts against 26 hits. Put simply, he doesn’t have closer stuff. When men reach against him — and lots of men do — he can’t extricate himself with big heat. He’s a change-up guy. So is Trevor Hoffman, but there’s a difference: Hoffman’s change has worked for more than a decade. Reitsma’s worked for a month.
It’s worth noting that Dan Kolb lost his job after blowing three saves in 13 chances last season. Reitsma has blown three in 10 and has a worse ERA than Kolb did when the unloved import was demoted 52 1/2 weeks ago. For what it’s worth, the Braves like the affable Reitsma much more than they did Kolb, who was seen as distant and difficult. “He’s the best,” Cox has said, speaking of Reitsma as a human being. As a closer, alas, he’s among the worst.
If not Reitsma, who? Well, the Braves’ mishandling of Joey Devine has removed him as an option, so that leaves only two choices – Ken Ray, who’s right-handed, and Macay McBride, who isn’t. They have two career saves between them (both by McBride), but never having done a job seems a better option than relying on someone who has proven he can’t do it.
The Braves aren’t in position to waste any more leads. They’re chasing two pretty good teams. If Ray, who went five seasons between big-league stints, or McBride, who wasn’t groomed as a closer and had two saves in five minor league seasons, can’t do it, then John Schuerholz has to trade for somebody who might. The longer the Braves go without addressing the issue, the farther they’ll have to climb when finally they do.
There are only two ways of dealing with a shaky closer: Either he stops being shaky or he stops getting the chance to close. The Braves keep giving Reitsma chances, hoping against hope. Time now to bow to cold reality. Time now to admit he’s an eighth-inning pitcher who has no business trying to work the ninth. It’s time now, while the Mets and Phillies are still in sight.
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