Cincinnati Reds swerve from multi-closer approach and use Raisel Iglesias instead

The Cincinnati Reds said that they would use four closers to start the season, but Michael Lorenzen and Tony Cingrani never got a chance.

This is really par for the course for the Cincinnati Reds.  They say they’ve come up with an idea to help combat their small market status.  Then when it is time to use that idea, they chicken out again and again.

All offseason long the Reds said that they would use all four pitchers from the list of Tony Cingrani, Michael Lorenzen, Raisel Iglesias, and Drew Storen to close out games.  A week into the season and that has proven to be a fallacy.  Storen and Iglesias have gotten chances, but same is not true for Cingrani and Lorenzen.

Cingrani has pitched in three games, getting one hold.  The only game he finished was a Reds blowout over the Saint Louis Cardinals.  His third game was a throwaway.

Lorenzen’s situation is even more obscure.  After being lauded all off-season as the multi-inning reliever that would change the bullpen, he pitched on inning in each of his first three games.  He also got a pinch hit home run in the first week of the season.

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Then, with Robert Stephenson and Cody Reed in the bullpen, Lorenzen was called upon to pitch three innings of relief following up a two inning start by Brandon Finnegan against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  It appears that he is being groomed to start once more.  Lorenzen went from presumed closer to potential fifth starter.

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Raisel Iglesias appears to be the traditional closer for the Cincinnati Reds to start the 2017 season.

Iglesias has pitched in 3 games for the Reds so far this season for a total of four innings.  He has finished all 3 games that he has entered.  He pitched twice against the Phillies in the opening series and then threw a two inning save to start the series in Saint Louis.  When he came up in 2014, Iglesias was supposed to be the next Johnny Cueto, not another Aroldis Chapman.

The only other pitcher to get a save attempt so far this season is Drew Storen.  He got the save in the last game of the opening series after Iglesias had pitched in the first two games.  Storen is clearly the back-up closer.

Lorenzen and Cingrani are sharing the set-up man responsibilities with Blake Wood, but they are all a step back.  Storen has finished two of the three games he has been in and is clearly the back-up closer.  How he beat out Lorenzen remains a mystery.

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The next question is was this means for the future of Iglesias.  He was a topic of trade discussion with the Miami Marlins before the Dan Straily trade.  Now Reds’ fans had best enjoy him before he prices himself right off of the team.