Cincinnati Reds: Raisel Iglesias has been closing the deal of late

Earlier this season, Cincinnati Reds closer Raisel Iglesias drew the ire of many fans. Lately, however, Iggy has shined when the game hangs in the balance.

The Cincinnati Reds did not start the 2019 season the way they’d hoped. A 1-8 start and a brawl with the Pittsburgh Pirates did not put the Reds on the path to success in the early going. The failures of Matt Kemp, Scott Schebler and Zach Duke have been well-documented, but Raisel Iglesias didn’t get off to a good start either. However, Iggy’s turned a corner of late.

In an effort to avoid the arbitration process, the Cincinnati Reds and Raisel Iglesias came to terms on a $24.1M contract this offseason. At the time of the deal, Iglesias had shown himself to be one of the best closers in baseball. Iglesias had 58 saves and an ERA of 2.43 from 2017-2018.

Unfortunately, the 2019 season didn’t offer the same type of success. Currently, Iglesias is 2-8 with a 3.93 ERA. His 8 losses are a career and Iggy’s given up 9 home runs this season. The Reds closer also has 3 blown saves in 2019.

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But, over the last 7 games, Iggy owns a 1.35 ERA and 5 saves over 6.2 innings of work. He’s allowed just 3 hits during that span while striking out 8 batters. We’ve started to see glimpses of the old Raisel Iglesias over the past few weeks.

Earlier this season, Iglesias vented some of his frustrations with the media about the way that the new coaching staff had been using the right-hander in non-save situations. David Bell had spoken before the season about the desire to use Iglesias in the highest-leverage situations of the game, regardless of if it was in the ninth inning or not.

While I advocated earlier this season, that Bell is correct in putting Iggy in to pitch, regardless of the situation, the numbers tend to support Iglesias being used strictly as a closer. When Iglesias begins an inning, opponents only touch him up for a .169 batting average. When he’s asked to come in with one of more outs, opposing hitters are smacking Iggy around the tune of .259.

It gets better. How about when the Reds are leading a game? When Cincinnati is ahead, he’s only allowing 17.6% of his opponents to get a hit. However, when the Reds are trailing and hoping to keep it close, Iggy’s batting average against is .333.

I’ll give you one more stat that supports Iglesias’ feelings about being used strictly as a closer. In the ninth inning, when the majority of closers handle their business, Iggy’s sporting an ERA of 2.54 with 53 strikeouts over 39 innings of work. But, in the eighth inning, in just 10.2 innings pitched, Iglesias’ ERA is 6.75 with just 14 Ks and 8 walks.

While a lot of fans feel as though Iglesias is having a “down” year, and there’s definitely some stats that support that, other metrics show that 2019 has been better than last year. Iglesias’ FIP of 3.96 is actually than in 2018 (4.23). His 31.4% strikeout percentage and 11.74 strikeouts per nine innings are both career highs.

From Opening Day through the end of July, Raisel Iglesias looked like anything but a closer. His ERA was sitting at 4.30 and he’d allowed 9 home runs. However, since July 27th, he’s been nothing but the model of consistency with 8 saves, and the Reds going 9-1 in those 10 games. He also hasn’t allowed a home run since July 22nd at Milwaukee and has an ERA of 0.93.

What happens to Iglesias this offseason is anyone’s guess. Bell seems to want fluidity with his relievers and has seen some great development from Michael Lorenzen and Amir Garrett. While trading Iglesias is definitely an option, I have a sneaking suspicion that he sticks around next year.