Joel Hanrahan will be Boston's closer in 2013. Beyond that? Junichi Tawawa might be the Red Sox long-term solution at that critical position.
Joel Hanrahan will be the Red Sox closer in 2013, after that the job could be handed off to Junichi Tazawa, pictured above.
Joel Hanrahan will get the ball in the ninth inning next season.
Hanrahan is a free agent after 2013. Is the role of closer heading into a prolonged period of short-term solutions? Who will get the ball in the ninth inning of tight games in 2014?
Unless you're the New York Yankees, to whom Mariano Rivera has provided the extremely rare luxury of being able to trot the same effective closer out of the bullpen for nearly 15 full seasons, the closer role is one that changes fairly frequently.
The Red Sox got six high-quality seasons out of Jonathan Papelbon, before he signed a free agent contact with the Philadelphia Phillies in November of 2011.
Last season it was a combination of Alfredo Aceves and Andrew Bailey. Next season the Red Sox hope Hanrahan healthy, effective, and consistent in the role. After that it gets fuzzy.
The team's upper management is very unlikely to make any proclamations regarding the state of the team in 2014, but there's no question that Junichi Tazawa may be in the process of being groomed to take over the closer role.
Tazawa was signed as a free agent by the Red Sox in December of 2008. He was impressive in the minor leagues and made his major league debut in August of 2009.
He missed all of 2010 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but returned in 2011. In 2012 Tazawa was fully healthy and at the age of 26 he appeared to finally find his groove at the big league level.
Tazawa was a bright spot in a dim 2012 season. He appeared in 37 games, pitched 44 innings, had an ERA of 1.43 and issued only five walks along the way, while striking out 45 batters.
Those are the types of numbers an All-Star closer produces. The only difference is that a closer is generating those stats in the ninth inning, while also accruing saves.
When the 2014 season starts, odds are that Joel Hanrahan will be on another team. Tazawa will be 27-years-old. If his upcoming season unfolds anything like his last, Tazawa could be well-positioned to be the Red Sox closer.
Tazawa won't be a free agent until 2017, so he wouldn't be a one-year stop-gap.
Of course there's the little matter of nextseason to get through first. If Tazawa continues to shine in the late innings of games, keeps his walks at a low level and responds well to pressure situations, the Red Sox may have a high-production, low-cost closer on the roster just waiting to be placed in that role.
In fact, if Hanrahan performs well but the Red Sox find themselves out of the playoff hunt at midseason, it's not out of the question they could look to deal him and give Tazawa an audition at closer in the final months of the 2013 season.
The Red Sox may be looking to trade one or two members of their now-crowded bullpen, but don't expect to see Tazawa dealt unless the offer is just too good to pass up.
He might be the closer of the future.