Texas Rangers Shawn Tolleson Removed As Closer

Two consecutive rough outings doom Tolleson from the closer role, at least for now.

Shawn Tolleson is no longer the closer for the Texas Rangers.

Speaking to 105.3 The Fan in Dallas this morning, Rangers Manager Jeff Banister said:

“Going forward, we’ll make a change in the interim. We’re going to give Tolley an opportunity to pitch in different situations. We’re gonna wrap our arms around Tolly and figure out what’s going on.”

Tolleson struggled this season, blowing four save chances out of fifteen. His last two appearances, however, cost him the role for the time being.

Sunday, at home against the Toronto Blue Jays, he surrendered back-to-back home runs to Justin Smoak and Troy Tulowitzki. What should have been a routine save with a 5-2 lead ended with a 6-5 Rangers win in 10 innings.

Tuesday night in Oakland, nursing a one-run margin against the Athletics, Khris Davis slammed a walk off grand slam with two outs in the ninth for an 8-5 win.

After a rough start to the season where the Seattle Mariners knocked him around for five runs the first series of the season, Tolleson converted ten of eleven chances before the back-to-back blown saves this week.

It may not be much of a surprise that he has been removed as the Rangers closer. Despite leading the American League with eleven saves, Tolleson has posted a 9.20 ERA and a 1.909 WHiP. Not only has Tolleson been hittable this year, giving up 23 hits in his 14.2 innings, but five of those have been home runs. For a team with postseason aspirations, they just cannot afford to have Tolleson in that role at this point.

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Sam Dyson, primarily used as the eighth inning setup man by the Rangers and was considered as a possible candidate to take over the role last week, will get the call going forward according to Banister. With two saves under his belt already this year, Dyson sports an ERA of 1.89 in 19 innings with a WHIP of 1.105.