Emmanuel Clase is breaking bats and records at an almost equal pace. Cleveland’s closer with a devilish cut fastball not seen since Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera’s dominant days with the New York Yankees is having a season to remember.

The argument for a closer being considered for a Cy Young Award is that he often pitches in the most important situations, and his effectiveness has to be truly elite. The arguments against them mostly involve a workload issue, as starters pitch many, many more innings for their team, which has real value to a club over the course of a long season.

For the early part of his career, Jose Mesa was a starter. He was big, strong and threw hard. He was also average at best. In 1994, Indians pitching coach Phil Regan and manager Mike Hargrove convinced Mesa to go to the bullpen.

Jorge Montanez breaks down the week of saves across baseball in his weekly closer rankings and highlights some steals options on the waiver wire.

As the Cleveland Guardians get closer to clinching their second AL Central title in three years, closer Emmanuel Clase is inching toward MLB history. Clase, who leads the league in saves with 45, just needs to stay ahead of St.

The Guardians entered Monday’s key AL Central series against the Twins with a bullpen that is leading the big leagues with a 2.68 ERA, 50 saves, a .203 batting average against and a 1.05 WHIP (walks+hits divided by nine innings).

Emmanuel Clase is breaking bats and records at an almost equal rate. He’s become baseball’s grim reaper, the cream of the closer crop. Cleveland’s right-hander with a devilish cut fastball not seen since Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera’s dominant days with the New York Yankees is having a season to remember.