Closing Time

Maybe not anymore.


As the season progresses and Jays fans continue to wet their depends every time BJ Ryan trots out to the mound, it is time to talk about the percolating issue of closing for Toronto’s boys of summer.

BJ Ryan stinks. The man’s degeneration has been more confusing than the plot of Lost. With 12 saves by the end of May last year, Ryan seemed to have recovered well from his Tommy John surgery the year before. Fast forward twelve months and he now throws a batting practice fastball and gets lit up more than Patrick Lalime in the post season. In 16 games so far this season, BJ has managed to blow 2 saves.

With this in mind, how necessary is the position of a consistent and dominating closer for lasting success in the Major Leagues? Generally teams must be able to rely on their bullpen late in games to succeed (think Jonathan Paplebon. 35,37,41 saves in the last three seasons). Toronto’s management acknowledged this importance by signing Ryan to a deal paying him 12 million dollars this season. This is roughly 1 million dollars for each point in his abysmal 11.12 ERA. Championship teams need a reliable closer and unfortunately reliable is just about the last adjective one would use to describe BJ these days.

Whats frustrating about Ryan’s deterioration is that it has been essentially the only low light in a promising start for the Jays. It is a shame that with Toronto’s young bats producing as they have and spirited (albeit inconsistent) efforts from the starting rotation that the last three outs in a number of games have been hard to come by.

Hopefully Jays’ manager Cito Gaston can manage to get his team off the island. One would hope he has enough sense to stop sending Ryan to the mound simply based on the value of his contract. Performance should be the only factor in determining playing time. With that in mind, it is time for Scott Downs to establish himself.