Is Jeanmar Gomez Already at Risk of Losing the Phillies’ Closing Job?
By Jim Turvey
The Philadelphia Phillies are one game into the 2017 season – a win, no less – and there is already controversy in the City of Brotherly Love.
The Philadelphia Phillies entered the ninth inning of Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds with a 4-1 lead. Being 2017, the Phillies had already used three relievers (Joaquin Benoit, Edubray Ramos and Hector Neris) to cover the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. The trio combined to strike out four and allow only two base runners. Now, with the mythical three-run lead, it was time for the closer. Out came Jeanmar Gomez, the 29-year-old righty tabbed with closing games for the Phillies. Nine pitches later it was 4-3 Phillies, and Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin had a couple of arms warming up in the bullpen.
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Gomez was ultimately able to close out the ninth, getting Billy Hamilton to fly out to deep center, but it was another shaky outing from a man who has made his name on shaky outings as the Phillies’ closer.
Gomez spent nearly all of 2016 as the Phillies’ closer (only losing the gig in the final week of the season), and he was able to save 86 percent of his 43 save opportunities. That percentage was good for 17th out of the 42 closers with at least 10 saves last season, but it’s also where the positives end with Gomez. He sported a 4.85 ERA that was third-highest among that same group, and if we raise the saves minimum to 15, Gomez then had the highest ERA.
He wasn’t much better by FIP, seventh-highest among those 42, with only Ryan Madson worse among full-season closers. Gomez struck out only 47 batters over 68.2 innings, and he just never looked like the dominant arm you want at the end of games.
However, he won the trust of his manager to start 2017, but that trust may already be shattered. Here are a few choice quotes from Mackanin after Monday’s win, via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com:
"“I’m concerned,” Mackanin said about Gomez’s shaky performance. “I had two guys up in the ‘pen in that ninth inning [Joely Rodriguez and Pat Neshek]. [Gomez] is just not getting the ball down the way he did when he was successful. I want to make sure that he gets opportunities, but at the same time, I don’t want to let games slip away.”"
"“He has to execute. Like I said, for me, he’s earned the right to be the closer for right now. But he’s got to get the ball down.”"
"“I like what I saw from Benoit, from Neris. Ramos has the stuff to be a closer. Neshek I haven’t seen enough of,” Mackanin said. “But I certainly have options. I don’t want to make too big of a deal out of it, but I owe it to the team to do what I think is best for the team.”"
That sounds like a closer whose chair is mighty wobbly right now. A closer who will be watching his back each time he takes the mound from here on out.
It’s not as if the Phillies are devoid of potential closers, either, as Mackanin noted. Neris is fresh off a season in which he struck out 11.43 batters per nine, with a 2.58 ERA and 3.17 xFIP. Benoit may be 39 years old, but he has closer experience, and he has posted a sub-3.00 ERA each of the past four seasons. We just saw Mackanin say that he believes Ramos has the stuff to be a closer.
Gomez will remain the closer for now – it’s not too often that a closer loses his job after a successful save – but if he blows one or two games this month, it would not at all be surprising to see Mackanin mix things up at the back-end of his bullpen. Gomez’s leash is shorter than ever.