Sergio Romo Should Be San Francisco Giants Closer in Brian Wilson's Absence

Santiago Casilla saved the day in the San Francisco Giants’ 4-2 victory of the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night, impressively tossing a scoreless ninth inning to secure the win. It was the team’s first save opportunity since the declaration that closer Brian Wilson is likely out for the remainder of the season due to a moderate sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament.

Much has been made about the Giants’ game plan for their bullpen moving forward. Will manager Bruce Bochy employ the closer-by-committee, playing the matchups of lefties or righties? Will it the save opportunity be determined by how many runs the lead is? Or will Casilla simply be the main man in the ninth inning?

Having Casilla as the closer makes sense in that he certainly does have the experience. Prior to Tuesday’s finishing touches, Casilla had 18 career opportunities—a small sample size to be sure, but enough to deem him adequately familiar with the role.

More importantly, however, Casilla’s performance as a member of the Giants has been supremely dominating, enough of his résumé to earn the job. In two seasons in San Francisco, Casilla has a 9-2 record with eight saves in 10 opportunities with a 1.85 ERA. It is evident that the 31-year-old Casilla has the firepower to mow down hitters. Moreover, he has only allowed three home runs as a Giant in over 110 innings of work. Clearly a solid option.

You can’t really go wrong with Casilla based on his solid body of work.

But the flame-throwing right-hander who really should earn the closing nod is setup man Sergio Romo. The 29-year-old lacks a bit of the experience that Casilla has finishing games, as Romo has only had eight save opportunities throughout his four-year career in the majors. (He only has three career saves.) But what Romo lacks in practice, he makes up for with ridiculous stuff.

Romo has thoroughly dominated the National League over the past two years with San Francisco. He has posted a 1.88 ERA in 110 innings over the last two seasons with an obnoxious .85 WHIP and 140 strikeouts to a paltry 19 bases on balls. Wow.

Those are some filthy numbers that make your head shake.

Romo has been obviously more of a situation pitcher, as he only logged 110 innings in 133 games pitched. Clearly, he dominates right-handed hitters, who batted only .150 with a .384 OPS against him in 2011. Bochy has used Romo significantly in seventh and eighth innings, particularly to retire right-handed hitters. He has served as the perfect setup man for Wilson in that time.

But if the Giants are going to weather this storm, with Wilson no longer available to close out games, they need to have their best reliever during crucial situations. Overcoming injuries to key players is always difficult. However, San Francisco has the players to take on the challenge and make the seamless transition. Romo is capable of being the shutdown closer.

It’s Romo who has mowed down the opposition with swifter ease than has Casilla. Romo’s the pitcher who has the lower walk rate. Romo overpowers hitters to the tune of 13.1 strikeout per nine innings. Seriously.

If those aren’t numbers worthy of filling Wilson’s shoes, then at least go to the beard. Romo even has the facial hair to take over the reins as the Giants closer.

Make no mistake—if San Francisco is going to have a shot at winning the National League West, they need to employ their top reliever to finish off ball games. Casilla is great, but he’s not the best.

Romo is.

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