Pittsburgh Pirates' Closer Matt Capps Out Eight Weeks: What Now?

The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff suffered yet another injury when closer Matt Capps was diagnosed with bursitis in his throwing shoulder Wednesday. Capps will not need surgery, but he will miss a minimum of eight weeks.

Capps had been struggling mightily of late, blowing five of his last seven save opportunities after coming through in his first 15 chances of the season. He was used a lot early this year, and many people who followed the Pirates wondered if his recent struggles were a result of overuse. Now they have their answer.

This is a huge blow for the Pirates, who, in the past couple weeks, have already lost starters Ian Snell and Phil Dumatrait to injury. If they are to remain in reach of the elusive .500 mark, they must find an adequate replacement (or two) in the ninth inning.

So who is going to succeed Capps? The following players are all being considered to fill the sudden vacancy in the closer role.

Damaso Marte: Perhaps the favorite for the job, if there is one. Marte has been the most consistent and dominant reliever on the Pittsburgh staff this year, striking out more than a batter per inning with a WHIP of 1.13.

The Pirates have a $6 million option for Marte in 2009, which they are almost certain not to pick up. Thus, they might want to give him a chance to close either to increase his trade value or to guarantee that he will become a Type-A free agent this winter.

Tyler Yates: The hard-throwing right-hander is also being considered, even if his stats don’t necessarily show that he deserves to be. Yates sports a respectable 3.67 ERA, but he has walked more batters than he has struck out this year, which explains his astronomical 1.54 WHIP.

For what it’s worth, Yates pitched the ninth inning against the Reds Wednesday night. It was not a save situation, as the Pirates led 9-5, but it was slated to be one before the Bucs scored a run in the top of the ninth.

Danny Moskos: Just kidding. By the way, Matt Wieters was recently promoted to AA.

John Grabow: Earlier in the year, Grabow would have easily been the frontrunner to fill in for Capps. But he has been terrible over the past month and has shown few signs of righting the ship. If he does return to form, Grabow may be pitching the ninth inning in August.

Romulo Sanchez: Sanchez, recently promoted from AAA, got the save in Tuesday night’s game after Capps initially blew the save in the 10th inning. While Sanchez has good stuff, it seems unlikely that manager John Russell will turn the ninth inning over to someone who has 19 career innings pitched. Plus, Sanchez’s save Tuesday wasn’t exactly clean, as he gave up a run on two hits and a walk.

Sean Burnett: John Russell has slowly grown more confident in Burnett, a former first-round draft pick who switched from being a starter to a reliever just this year. Burnett has pitched well of late, allowing only one run in his past seven outings—and that run came in a game in which he pitched three innings.

It seems a bit early for Burnett to be thrust into the closer’s role—the Pirates aren’t that desperate—but he could certainly see an increased role over the next two months.

The answer, then, is that there is no answer. Yates most resembles the prototypical hard-throwing, gutsy, take-on-all-comers pitcher you would want to take the hill in the ninth inning, but he simply doesn’t throw enough strikes.

What complicates the matter further is that the Pirates don’t really have an eighth-inning guy—it used to be Grabow before his prolonged slump—so there is no pecking order to follow.

The triumvirate of Yates, Marte, and Grabow has done a spectacular job of getting the game from the starter to Capps as a group throughout the year. Expect Russell to take a similar approach now that Capps is gone, using the three pitchers interchangeably in various important situations to get through the game’s final three innings.