Robert Suarez is leading candidate to protect lead in final inning, others seem capable of role — with questions
Every Padres closer for nearly three decades, ever since the guy with the statue stepped into the role in 1993, lists at least one All-Star game selection on his resume. Either before they arrived or shortly thereafter, these men were or worked into becoming among the best closers in the game.
Now, with the 2022 season fewer than three weeks away and the Padres having designs on competing for a World Series title, they are a team without a closer.In a deep and experienced bullpen, there are multiple maybes, a number of guys who have the pitches and/or the mindset to be on the mound trying to hold a lead in the final inning.But he doesn’t have the command. But his inconsistency. But he has never done it.
But he did save 42 games in Japan last season and signed with the Padres for one year and $6 million with a $5 million option for 2023. That is the kind of money that suggests the Padres believe Suarez can follow Mark Melancon and Kirby Yates and Trevor Rosenthal and Brad Hand and Fernando Rodney and Craig Kimbrel and Huston Street and Heath Bell and Rod Beck and Trevor Hoffman.“It wasn’t like the guy,” Padres President of Business Operations A.J. Preller said. “It was like, ‘Hey, get a bunch of arms for possibilities for back there, and he’s going to be one of the first guys we look at.
Manager Bob Melvin has alluded to Emilio Pagàn’s experience and Dinelson Lamet’s potential as a closer. There are others in the bullpen with traits that make them a possibility.He throws in the high 90s and has reached triple digits. Suarez got his start in the Mexican League in 2015 and went to Japan the next year. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2017 and he was merely OK the next two seasons before leading the Central League in saves the past two seasons for the Hanshin Tigers.
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