GOODYEAR, Ariz. – For baseball’s oldest franchise, it’s fitting that a new idea is really an old one in disguise. That’s the case when it comes to how the Cincinnati Reds plan to close out games.
Reds manager Bryan Price has talked about it since the middle of last season. He doesn’t want to get “cliché” with his bullpen, he said. And with a pair of young former starters ready to take over the late innings in Raisel Iglesias and Michael Lorenzen, the Reds are poised to have a set of alternating, multi-inning closers.
Compared to the staid bullpen deployment of the last decade, with relievers slotted firmly into single-inning roles, it’s an interesting way of attacking the final innings of games.