Ozzie Guillen will not use Heath Bell after the break as he announces use of new closers - MLB
As was expected, Miami Marlins’ manager Ozzie Guillen announced that he will be employing new closers after the All-Star break. He made it clear that Heath Bell, who has been mediocre in the first half, will not be used unless he shows drastic improvement.
The declaration possibly opens an opportunity for Juan Carlos Oviedo, who can play legitimately on July 23 after being suspended for eight weeks, to do the closing job for the club. Similarly, Steve Cishek is another relief pitcher who is in line to replace
Bell.
Indications of the changes were visible when in the last game Bell squandered the winning opportunity and cost the club a defeat. Furthermore, the poor performance was followed by a lash-out by the manager, who criticised his inability to restrain nerves
late in the innings and perform well under pressure.
By the time the Marlins begin the second half, they will be requiring splendours from their players in order to reach the top of the table.
Currently, they are languishing at the lower end of the table. The fact other teams in their Division have by far a better record in terms of wins, long winning streaks is an only way they can keep themselves in contention.
For this, not only the closers but the role of their hitters is going to be equally important. Therefore, the hitters in their offence who have lacked consistency thus far will be putting up better shows.
Meanwhile, Guillen states that soon he will be reviewing various options to select closers for upcoming games. Though he does not rule out the possibility of using Bell again, it will happen only if he gives him a strong reason to be called back, he stated.
“I’m going to go by committee, see who throws the ball better,” Guillen said. “I will talk to [Bell] when we come back from the All-Star break and explain to him why we’re going to do this. Hopefully, he’ll come back and start throwing the ball better and
then he’ll go back to his role."
To what extent changing closers is going to impact the outcome of the games for the Marlins will be interesting to see as the season moves forward.
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