It’s hard to think of a more thankless job in baseball than reliever who doesn’t get to close games. The inherent nature of that role will place even the most effective relievers in a bunch of snoozers, mopping up the middle innings or pitching out the string in blowouts that only people in Kitsap County who lost their remote are watching.
Hilariously, almost every team has three or four of these pitchers at any given time. I know all of you are brain geniuses, and understand that closer is an arbitrary role designed to appease a stat that MLB created itself, but at the very least it typically attracts the best reliever in the bullpen.