Jason Grilli should be the Pirates closer in 2013. Yeah, I said it and this is why. Grilli, who in 2012 pitched one less inning than Joel Hanrahan, gave up 1 less homer, 14 less walks, and had 23 more strikeouts. He did give up 5 more hits and 1 more earned run. Grilli is a free agent as of now and is getting looked at by other teams for their closer role while the Pirates are trying to re-sign him as a set-up guy. I say no.
The Pirates should go into the upcoming winter meetings wanting to trade Hanrahan. Yes, Hanny is a fan favorite and a pretty good closer, but in this game you want to sell high to get a return that can help your team in the long run. Once the Bucs send out Hanrahan, they should be able to sign Grilli while getting a player or two that can fill the holes the Pirates had that led to last year’s collapse.
Now you all are asking, who goes into the set-up role if Grilli is the closer? Maybe Tony Watson or Chris Resop? No. I think this would be a perfect opportunity for Bryan Morris. Morris, who was good in AAA last year, should fill that role. He had a 2.67 ERA in 81 innings with Indy and had 6 strikeouts in 5 innings with the Bucs last September. He is the closer of the future so why not give him the set-up role to pitch some high-leverage situations while he waits to take Grilli’s place in a couple years?
Once Grilli gets to the last year of his contract (and hopefully his arm hasn’t fallen off), you ship him out for some pieces and repeat the cycle all over again, this time with Morris and Victor Black (Saved 13 games for AA Altoona with a 1.65 ERA).
Baseball is a business, if you don’t play your cards right then you end up with 20 losing seasons. Let’s try not to make it 21, For ours and The Great One’s sake.
