David Bednar Finally Removed from Closer Role; I’d Prefer the Role Itself be Removed

8-31-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

Too little too late.

David Bednar has been showing all season long that something simply wasn’t right. Why doesn’t really matter anymore does it?

I mean, was it the Pirates fault because of how they began the season with David? Was it David being stubborn about not wanting to go on the IL. I’ve noticed a whole lot of amateur dietitians have decided David is too fat, maybe that’s it.

None of it matters because, well….

These numbers can’t be allowed to happen, while remaining in the closing role on a baseball team claiming they want to compete.

You don’t get the privilege of this kind of patience anymore once your team is supposedly competitive.

Now, the relievers as a whole have been fairly awful this season. Sure, there have been some more reliable than others, although you won’t find a single example of a Bucco reliever who didn’t have some distinctly awful performances as this has all played out.

That said, there have been ebbs and flows, like there always are for relievers. Rarely do you have guys go tape to tape performing at the top of their game.

Early this year, Colin Holderman became the only truly reliable reliever. When he was at his best, Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar weren’t.

Eventually this would net Colin some higher leverage situations, even bumped Chapman to the 7th inning for a while. When David Bednar was used 2 days consecutively, Holderman was starting to be the choice if they needed a game closed out 3 straight contests.

Then it went bad for Holderman and it took weeks of it before the Pirates adapted even as Kyle Nicolas had proven himself after his shaky start to 2024.

All the while, David Bednar remained in the closing role. At one point, he closed successfully 19 straight opportunities, and they were rarely clean outings. Still, he was managing to get the job done and with so many underperforming, I suppose it made sense to just leave him there while it was getting the job done.

But to watch this play out for 30 games, and do nothing?

And really, it’s been worst than that. His year long numbers, I mean they’re the stuff of DFA candidates or waiver claims, not 2 time All Stars.

I mean, here is a look at Craig Kimbrel’s numbers this year. A guy who was removed from the closer role in Baltimore.

These numbers weren’t good enough to be the closer on a playoff team. A guy with a much longer track record and far superior career numbers to David Bednar, was given a leash about a quarter as long.

Again, his numbers aren’t horrible for the season, but he couldn’t survive this brutal stretch…

Unsuccessful teams like the Pirates and Reds, well, they don’t always make these calls fast enough.

Much like David Bednar, the Reds and manager David Bell have an unhealthy relationship with their supposed biggest and baddest bullet.

Not quite the disaster Bednar has been, but certainly not what you want from your closer.

And you have to imagine if what you’re about to look at continues, he’ll be one of the next to join the group of former closers.

For years, the single excuse for having a closer has been “it takes a different kind of guy to close out games”.

I’ll go along with that to a degree, it does take someone who can go get a strikeout when they need to. Barely walk anyone and have the fortitude to understand the game is on the line and nobody is going to be warming up as a safety net.

I get it, but teams are costing themselves wins by continuing to make this some kind of hard to change situation.

By calling them a closer and making a huge scene out of their seemingly impossible to attain gumption to finish games, they create a situation where change requires hurting feelings, talking to the press, and then…I almost forgot…then they have to pick someone new, and of course, that must be a decision that lasts for weeks.

I’d simply suggest, wouldn’t we be farther ahead if we just looked at the matchups and made decisions on who the pitcher would be based on that? Like, if a team’s 4 best players are due up in the 9th, and 3 of them are left handed, please describe a world to me where it makes more sense to pitch David Bednar as opposed to Aroldis Chapman? Regardless of what you call either of them?

I’m glad they’ve finally decided to make this move. I also don’t think a team like this can afford to throw away wins in an effort to not hurt feelings, or some silly belief that someone else can’t get 3 outs even as you’ve watched the person you claim to be comfortable with doing so has failed over half the time for a month.