The Arizona Diamondback Closers’ Cup: Round One

Feb 3, 2023 - 8:00 PM

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The concept

This was somewhat sparked by Jack’s discussion about the greatest closer seasons in franchise history. This got me wondering who has been the greatest closer in D-backs history - across multiple campaigns. That’s something which is a bit harder to decide. Unlike some teams, there’s no obvious choice. For the Yankees, you need look no further than Mariano Rivera’s 652 saves, or in San Diego, Trevor Hoffman’s 552 saves making him the Padres’ #1, no question about it. But the 946 saves closed out by the Diamondbacks have been recorded by 81 different pitchers, including names you might have forgotten or be surprised at. Buddy Groom, Trevor Cahill and Patrick Corbin, are all on the list.

Nobody in franchise history has ever reached even a hundred saves for Arizona, over their 25 seasons. For comparison, over that same time-frame, 1998-2022, there have been 82 pitchers in the majors to have recorded a hundred saves in total. Quite a number of them - eleven all told - did appear for Arizona at some point. Those include both pitchers who succeeded here, and... not so much. Brad Ziegler, J.J. Putz and Jose Valverde are in the former group, while the latter names include Tom Gordon, Gregg Holland, Bob Wickman and our latest ex-closer, Mark Melancon. However, Valverde still holds the franchise mark, with 98 saves recorded between 2003 and 2007.

I thought it might be fun, as we occupy ourselves over the last few weeks, to have a knock-out tournament, pitting the most successful closers in team history against each other. Eight entrants were selected by and seeded on, the basis of the number of saves recorded while with Arizona. That resulted in a cut-off line at 40 saves: sorry to Fernando Rodney and Addison Reed, who just missed out on the basis of their time here. These eight pitchers will go head-to-head in a series of polls, beginning today and over the next two Fridays, and the winner will be anointed the best closer in Diamondbacks’ history. I expect there to be lots of arguments...

The contestants

As mentioned, these were selected objectively, purely on the bases of the number of saves, and these were also used to determine match-ups, e.g. the #1 seed will face the #8 seed in the first round, then the winner will face whoever prevails in the match-up of #4 vs #5 seeds in the semi-final. On the other side of the draw, #2 will go up against #7, with the winner taking on the winner of #3 against #6.

1. José Valverde - 98 saves
2. J.J. Putz - 83 saves
3. Matt Mantei - 74 saves
4. Byung-Hyun Kim - 70 saves
5. Brad Ziegler - 62 saves
6. Chad Qualls - 45 saves
7. Gregg Olson - 44 saves
8. Brandon Lyon - 42 saves

For your consideration, here are a summary of some relevant numbers for each player. Extended stats, including those outside the top eight, are available at this link. I would caution a little bit about using save percentage exclusively. Some of these pitchers (such as Ziegler) also worked before the ninth inning, in situations where they could be charged with blowing a save, but were not able to record one. This will lead to their save percentage being lower than just for their time as a closer. Jack did the math for Ziegler, for example, and if he gets credit for the holds he recorded as well as the saves, his “Hold + Save Percentage” jumps up from 78.5% to a much more impressive 88.2%.

The above seems to show how there is no clear winner, with almost every metric having a different leader. Saves? Valverde. ERA+? Ziegler. FIP? Putz. bWAR? Kim. You pay your money and you make your choice. So, with that all said, here are the first-round match-ups, with a poll for each. Some feel like they’re relatively easy to decide in this early going, but I would not want to be forced to wager any money on the outcome for the last battle. That feels like it would be a quite fitting final match-up, and it’s a shame one of the two will be packing up their locker and going home at the first hurdle...

The polls

#1 Jose Valverde vs. #8 Brandon Lyon

#2 J.J. Putz vs. #7 Gregg Olson

#3 Matt Mantei vs. #6 Chad Qualls

#4 Byung-Hyun Kim vs. #5 Brad Ziegler

Maybe once we’ve done this, we’ll run a bonus poll to see who readers think was the worst closer in franchise history... For now though, please feel free to post your selections and explain your choices in the comments.