Cincinnati Reds’ four man closing rotation is a bad idea, especially for a potentially bad team

The Cincinnati Reds have enough talent to build a more traditional bullpen arrangement.

The Cincinnati Reds have a young, elite talent to close this year in Michael Lorenzen.  He had a 2.88 ERA last year, but that should be even lower this year, if he can maintain his WHIP around 1.00 as he did last year.  He is a first round talent with first round stuff, who should be given every opportunity to be the primary closer. Originally the Reds trained him as a starter, but that hasn’t panned out yet.

The pitcher that most people are interested in seeing in the bullpen this year is Raisel Iglesias.  He will be eligible for arbitration this year and could quickly become too expensive for the Reds to keep.  His ability to pitch two innings at a time as a set-up man or a back-up closer is very intriguing in the meantime.

During the off-season the Reds signed reclamation project Drew Storen.  He may get a large number of save opportunities, if the Reds plan on trading him.  He was the primary closer for the Washington Nationals in 2011 and 2015, but looked overmatched much of the year vs. American League line-ups in 2016.

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The fourth pitcher that the Reds are including in this rotation idea is last year’s closer Tony Cingrani.  Cingrani blew seven saves and had an ERA of 4.11.  Even with the addition of a cutter, it is difficult to imagine that Cingrani will suddenly be good again after three mediocre years.

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Using all four relievers as an equal closer will do nothing, but cost the Cincinnati Reds precious wins.

Not using Lorenzen to put away a team whenever he is available doesn’t make sense.  Cingrani’s ERA is usually a run higher than Lorenzen’s and Storen’s ERA doesn’t project much lower than Cingrani’s.  There is room for discussion about whether Lorenzen or Iglesias should close.

Lorenzen makes the most sense because he is still two years away from arbitration, so he may be a long term solution as the closer.  He also has experience from college as a closer, so it is a familiar role.  The Reds also need to figure out where Lorenzen fits moving forward.

Having Iglesias and Storen as back-up for the days that Lorenzen isn’t available is a good thing.  Lorenzen and Iglesias could both go multiple innings in the same game.  That potentially means that there will be days that neither one of them is available.  That is when it would be nice to have Scott Feldman setting up Storen.  Instead Feldman is in the starting rotation.

Next: Cozart, Feldman, and Storen will be gone by September

Whether it is Lorenzen or Iglesias, one of them should be the closer on the Reds this season.  Iglesias got the first shot this year.  Allowing Cingrani to come into high leverage situations doesn’t make any sense.  That just means that the Reds will need to score more runs.  Otherwise, they won’t be able to overcome the manager’s decisions.