When Trevor Hoffman earned the first of his major league record 554 saves – for Florida on April 29, 1993 – Jason Motte was 10 years old. Hoffman, now 41 years old and 552 saves removed from the Marlins, and Motte, now 26, will serve in similar roles this season.
Hoffman, whom the San Diego Padres invited to leave as a free agent after 16 years with them, will close games for the Milwaukee Brewers once he has recovered from his strained oblique. Motte, who gained one save in 12 relief appearances last season, will most likely have the opportunity to be the St. Louis Cardinals’ closer.
Tony LaRussa, the Cardinals’ manager, was careful even in the final week of spring training not to designate Motte as the closer, but in the exhibition season he registered five saves in five chances and struck out 17 and walked one in 11 1/3 innings.
If Motte retains the role, he will be one of about a dozen new closers or pitchers closing for different teams. He replaces Jason Isringhausen, who in his first six seasons with the Cardinals amassed 205 saves but last season encountered hand and elbow injuries that limited him to 42 games and 12 saves.
Isringhausen, 36, has recovered from an elbow operation last September and if he demonstrates his old effectiveness with his new team, Tampa Bay, he could wind up getting work as the Rays’ closer if Troy Percival doesn’t make a successful return from back surgery.
Hoffman wanted to remain in San Diego, but he was a victim of the Padres’ payroll-slashing plan, which means he was a victim of the divorce of the owner, John Moores, from wife Becky because the divorce prompted the need for a lower payroll.
The Brewers signed Hoffman to replace Salomon Torres, who retired, and they hope this signing works out better than their signing of Eric Gagne last year. Gagne blew 7 saves in 17 chances and had a 5.44 earned run average in 50 games. Torres squandered the same number of saves but in 35 chances with a 3.49 e.r.a. in 71 games.
Heath Bell, who was a closer in the minor leagues in the Mets’ organization but has only two saves in the majors, is replacing Hoffman in San Diego. A 31-year-old right-hander, Bell relieved in a total of 155 games for the Padres in the past two seasons but was only 2-for-13 in save chances, including 0-for-7 last season.
The most glamorous closer in a new position is Francisco Rodriguez, whom the Mets lured east from Anaheim. Rodriguez had a major league record 62 saves for the Angels last season and has had a total of 194 in the last four seasons.
The Mets pursued Rodriguez because they weren’t going to have the injured Billy Wagner, and the bullpen created their most serious problems last season. J.J. Putz, who was Seattle’s closer for the last three seasons, was brought in via trade to be the setup man for Rodriguez.
In each instance where a closer left his team, the team needed to replace him, and a game of dominoes ensued. The Angels, for example, signed Brian Fuentes to replace Rodriguez, and the Colorado Rockies replaced Fuentes by acquiring Huston Street from Oakland.
Street lost his closing job with the Athletics around mid-season last year, replaced by a rookie, Brad Ziegler, who had 11 saves in 13 chances and a 1.06 e.r.a. Joey Divine is on hand in case Ziegler falters.
The Chicago Cubs didn’t want to pay Kerry Wood what he wanted to extend his tenure as their closer, and his departure to Cleveland initiated another round of dominoes. The Cubs obtained Kevin Gregg from the Florida Marlins, for whom he saved 29 games, and Matt Lindstrom, who had 5 saves in 6 chances for the Marlins, is replacing Gregg.
Arizona has a new closer, too, Chad Qualls, who got the job despite his career record of 21 blown saves in 36 chances in five seasons with the Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros. Brandon Lyon, who saved 26 games in 31 chances for the Diamondbacks last season, left as a free agent and signed with Detroit, whose closer, Todd Jones, retired.
As spring training ended, one closing role remained undetermined. The Mariners had not decided who would replace Putz, though the leading candidate was Brandon Morrow, who in an abbreviated role last year earned 10 saves in 12 opportunities.
Morrow began spring training as a starter, but flu and a sore arm forced him back to the bullpen. He relieved four times in the last 12 days of exhibition games, none in a save situation.
David Aardsma, whose claim to fame is his name – it comes first in the pitching section of baseball encyclopedias, may get some ninth innings, but he is 0-for-5 with four teams in four years. The Mariners are his fifth team in five years.
THEY DIDN’T MAKE IT
Some highly touted prospects didn’t make it to opening day, returning to the minor leagues for further seasoning, but they shall return.
Among the group are pitchers David Price of Tampa Bay (at right), Jordan Zimmerman of Washington and Tommy Hanson of Atlanta, third baseman Pedro Alvarez of Pittsburgh and catchers Buster Posey of San Francisco and Matt Wieters of Baltimore.
Some more established players didn’t make opening day either. Dontrelle Willis of Detroit is probably the most notable player who failed. A 22-game winner with Florida in 2005, Willis has won 22 games the past three seasons, landed in the minors last season and opens this season on the disabled list suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Kyle Kendrick is another pitcher who didn’t make it though for a more routine reason: ineffectiveness. His demotion was a surprise because he had been expected to win the No. 5 starting job after he won 21 games and lost 13 for Philadelphia the past two seasons.
With one day left in August last year and 26 games left in the season, Kendrick was tied with Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer as the Phillies’ leading winners with 11 victories. However, the Phillies left him off the post-season roster, and he was unable to regain his spot on the roster this spring.
Other pitchers with major league time who failed to win jobs included Mike Maroth and Matt Clement with Toronto, Jo-Jo Reyes with Atlanta, Brendan Donnelly with Texas, Aaron Laffey with Cleveland, Jimmy Gobble with Texas, Tom Gorzelanny with Pittsburgh, Shawn Estes with Los Angeles, Kip Wells and Josh Towers with Washington, Oscar Villarreal with Kansas City and Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Jason Johnson and Kei Igawa with the Yankees.
Also coming up short were David Newhan, 35, a utility infielder, with five teams in eight seasons, who was released by Houston, and Daryle Ward, 33, a first baseman, who was released by Cincinnati, whom he was trying to make his seventh team in 12 seasons.
Some other players who have played in the majors but didn’t win jobs for opening day:
Trot Nixon, Jacque Jones, Frank Catalanotto, So Taguchi, Tony Gwynn Jr., Chris Gomez, Jason Lane, Russ Adams, Corey Patterson, Javier Valentin, Matt Murton, Nelson Figueroa, Ben Broussard, Kirk Saarloos, Aaron Fultz, Taylor Tankersley, Clay Hensley, Tom Martin, Casey Fossum, Ryan Langerhans, Rob Mackowiak, Ryan Shealy, Andy Phillips, Chris Shelton, Mike Morse.
JONES PULLS OUT A JOB
Frank Catalanotto, an 11-year major leaguer with a creditable .292 career batting average, didn’t make it with Texas because Andruw Jones did with a late spring burst of hitting (10 hits in his last 29 at-bats) and a willingness to be a reserve outfielder.
Jones’ late hitting certainly was a factor, Jon Daniels, the Rangers’ general manager, said, then added, “But he came in and told us he’d be happy to accept a part-time role. We went into the spring not knowing if it would work with him in a fifth-outfielder’s role and platoon d.h. He made it clear he’d be happy doing that if he won a job. We can use a right-handed bat.”
The price was right, Daniels said, meaning the $500,000 salary the Rangers are paying Jones while the Dodgers pay the rest of the $21.1 million he is owed under the two-year, $36.2 million contract he signed with Los Angeles last year.
“It’s minimum risk,” Daniels said. “We figured it was worth doing.” And refering to Jones’ right-handed hitting and Catalanotto’s left-handed swings, Daniels said, “Catalanotto wasn’t going to get a lot of at-bats with our lineup.”
A GRAVE SITUATION
Danny Graves, a 35-year-old right-hander, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2006, appears to have lost a chance to pitch in 2009.
As a relief pitcher earlier in his career, Graves earned 94 saves in three seasons (2000-2002) with Cincinnati. Then the Reds switched him to the starting rotation in 2003, and he lost 15 games. He returned to the bullpen in 2004 and gained 41 saves.
Although he had 10 saves in 12 chances in less than a third of the 2005 season, the Reds released him, he signed with the Mets, had a 5.75 e.r.a. in 20 relief appearances and was released 10 weeks after he signed.
He tried to win a job with the Houston Astros this spring, but he didn’t make it. The Astros released him from his minor league contract March 25, making him a free agent. No other team has signed him.
NO-HITTERS NO MATTER
The Red Sox are so loaded with pitchers that two pitchers who have thrown no-hitters or quasi-no-hitters in the majors couldn’t make the staff but had to return to the minors again.
Clay Buchholz pitched a no-hitter against Baltimore Sept. 1, 2007, in his second major league start. He was in the starting rotation for about half of last season but struggled in 15 starts, compiling a 2-9 record with a 6.75 e.r.a. The 24-year-old right-hander had no chance of forcing his way into the team’s crowded rotation this season.
On the final day of the 2006 season, Devern Hansack allowed the Orioles no hits in a rain-shortened five-inning complete game. His effort was not recorded as a no-hitter because he didn’t pitch nine innings as the rules say a pitcher has to, but it was a memorable performance nevertheless for the Nicaraguan native.
A 30-year-old right-hander, Hansack will have to wait a while longer for a more extended opportunity than he has had in the two seasons since that game. In 2007 he started one Red Sox game and relieved twice, and last season he relieved in four games.
WHERE ARE MADDUX, GLAVINE AND SMOLTZ?
Greg Maddux is retired, and Tom Glavine and John Smoltz are opening the season on the disabled list. This marks the first time, then, since 1987 when one of those three pitchers, who would be teammates for 10 years in Atlanta (1993 through 2002), wasn’t on an active major league roster on opening day.
Glavine, who just turned 43, and Smoltz, who will be 42 in a month, are both expected to work their way back to their teams’ starting rotation after recovering from their operations last year, Glavine with Atlanta, Smoltz with Boston. When Smoltz pitches for the Red Sox, it will be the first team he plays for other than the Braves.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
The Milwaukee Brewers released Mike Lamb on April Fool’s Day last week, but it was the Yankees who played a painful April Fool’s trick on the third baseman in 2004 when it wasn’t even the day for such tricks.
The Yankees, needing a third baseman, acquired Lamb from the Rangers Feb. 5, telling everyone he was the man for the job. At the moment, to their credit, they meant it.
However, 11 days later, they made another trade with the Rangers and it was also for a third baseman, fellow name of Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees traded Lamb several weeks later to Houston, where he played for the next four seasons.
YANKS UNDER 2008 PAYROLL BUT STILL OVER $200 MILLION
To think that I was skeptical of the Yankees’ boast that they would have a lower payroll this year than they had last year. With opening day here, they have made it, though the payroll is still over $200 million.
Their opening-day payroll, by far the highest in the majors, of course, is $201.45 million. Last season the Yankees opened at $209 million, meaning they have lowered the payroll by 3.6 percent.
