Closer Monkey

Category: Cincinnati Reds

  • Closers Diego Castillo and Brad Hand traded; hours left before trade deadline

    July 30, 2021 Seattle Mariners — Days after trading closer Kendall Graveman to the Astros, the Mariners acquired Diego Castillo and will presumably plug him into the ninth-inning role right away. GM Jerry Dipoto said as much, though he acknowledged others could also factor in based on matchups. Paul Sewald, who has been amazing this…

  • Aroldis Chapman finally gets a save

    July 21, 2021 New York Yankees — It had been a month since Aroldis Chapman had earned a save, but despite allowing a solo homer to Andrew McCutchen, the struggling reliever stuck out Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Didi Gregorius to convert his first save opportunity since that disastrous outing against the Mets on July 4.…

  • Matt Foster, Josh Osich grab saves as first half comes to a close

    July 12, 2021 Chicago White Sox – Matt Foster picked up his first big league save, logging the final two outs in an extra inning game. Foster won’t likely get many high-leverage chances going forward. Hierarchy remains: Hendriks | Burr | Crochet. Cincinnati Reds – With Heath Hembree unavailable, the Reds pieced their way through…

  • Chad Green continues his strong work for the Yankees

    July 8, 2021 New York Yankees — For years, a one-run lead in the ninth inning has produced a Pavlovian response in Yankees fans: Aroldis Chapman. But a month of increasingly harsh negative reinforcement has flipped the script, leaving them newly desperate to not see their $17.2 million closer in a tight spot (examples one, two,…

  • Yankees to “talk through” late game approach after Chapman struggles again

    July 5, 2021 New York Yankees – Aroldis Chapman had another ugly outing, consisting of a leadoff homer to tie the game, followed by a walk and a hit batsman, both of whom eventually scored. But it wasn’t just that he was bad again. It was that the two relievers who are ostensibly competing with…