A Fistful Of Closers…

During the trading deadline, the Cards picked up a pair of former closers, Steve Cishek and Jonathan Broxton. In the off-season they signed the currently injured Jordan Walden, another former closer. All of this while having a very good closer in Trevor Rosenthal.

Presumably, Cishek and Broxton will be valuable members of the bullpen, seamlessly becoming part of the bullpen, making it deeper and stronger.

You have to wonder though, if they miss being the closer at all. Being the guy that finishes things off and gets the thrill of recording the final out.

With Broxton, that’s not much of a worry as he’s pretty far removed from being a full-time closer (way back in 2012, with the Reds, before the awesomeness that is Aroldis Chapman had become the Reds closer) and has struggled enough this year that he surely knows he’s going to come in anywhere near the 9th inning on most nights.

In contrast, Cishek may be another story. He was a full-time closer last year before losing the job while with his former team, the Marlins. He’s probably still feeling the sting of that.

Now, on the surface, everything is sunshine and rainbows, as it almost always appears to be in baseball, and especially with the Cardinals. You always get the “happy to be here” jazz, especially with this team, given how we’re always in the thick of things, our friendly and welcoming players, and the fact that one of Mike Matheny‘s strengths is managing the clubhouse. For all of my questioning of his in-game tactics, Mike is definitely a player’s manager. All of that combined will probably smooth things over.

Still you have to wonder, if Trevor starts to struggle at any point down the stretch, if Cishek will get the itch to close again. If he’ll casually wander into Mike’s office and suggest it.

Probably not, but you never know.

As always, thanks for reading.

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