Ranking MLB's 5 Most Frustrating 'Heart Attack' Closers

The door to the bullpen opens as the closer comes in to preserve the one-run lead. In the back of your mind, you already know that the ninth inning is going to be an adventure.

Has this ever happened to you?

There are a few closers in Major League Baseball that give you a heart attack when they’re trying to convert a save opportunity. Whether it’s because they have little command of their pitches or the opposition gets a couple of hits, you feel like the lead is blown before it even happens on the scoreboard.

One thing to keep in mind throughout the following rankings is that a closer doesn’t have to blow a lot of saves to be a “heart attack" closer. The point is that they come close to blowing a save more often than not, giving you that uneasy feeling.

So let’s take a look at the five closers who are most likely to freak you out in the ninth inning, analyzing which aspect of their game classifies them as a “heart attack” closer.

*All statistics in this article were obtained via FanGraphs unless otherwise noted. All contract information was obtained via Cot’s Contracts. All injury information was obtained via Baseball Prospectus. 

Honorable Mention: Carlos Marmol (Chicago Cubs)

If Carlos Marmol were still the closer for the Chicago Cubs, he’d easily top this list.

However, Kevin Gregg is now handling the ninth inning duties for the Cubs, taking over for the injured Kyuji Fujikawa, who replaced Marmol as the team’s closer after just the first week of the regular season, as noted by Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.

Marmol, now just your everyday reliever for Chicago, has always been a bit shaky on the mound—specifically when he became the primary closer in 2010. While Marmol has struck out an average of 11.63 batters per nine innings over the course of his career, he has horrible command.

Marmol has also issued a career average of 6.04 walks per nine innings, which has been his main problem in the ninth inning. He walks a batter or two and before you know it, the lead is blown and the game is lost.

This season, Marmol has a 4.05 ERA over 20 innings of work with a pair of saves, three holds and two blown saves. In those 20 innings, the right-hander has walked 14 batters, hit three and thrown two wild pitches.

5. Jose Veras, Houston Astros

Jose Veras signed with the Houston Astros over the winter and earned the closing job during spring training.

Since spring training, however, Veras has been anything but reliable for Houston when the team has a lead in the ninth—which isn’t very often. This season, Veras has only had 11 save opportunities and he’s blown a trio of them for a 72.7 save percentage.

This is the first year that Veras has been a full-time closer, usually handling the seventh or eighth inning throughout his career before coming to Houston. He had actually only had five career saves before the 2013 season.

He hasn’t made the most of his opportunity to remain the closer, though.

Despite Veras’ struggles, manager Bo Porter is still going to give him the ball in the ninth inning, according to Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle. Porter acknowledged “some bumps in the road”, but also noted that he thinks Veras can make the appropriate adjustments.

If Veras blows one more save, that would put Porter in a position to seek a new closer. The Astros aren’t going to win many games this season, but if they need just three outs to win, Porter has to put in his most reliable reliever.

That hasn’t been Veras thus far. 

4. Brandon League, Los Angeles Dodgers

Despite signing a three-year deal over the offseason to be the closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Brandon League may only have a couple more opportunities to prove that he’s worthy of the job.

League is 11-for-13 in save opportunities this season, but has certainly come close to blowing even more leads for the Dodgers. He has a 4.66 ERA through 19.1 innings of work and a 17.6 percent home run-per-fly ball rate.

Over the course of League’s career, he has struck out 6.6 batters per nine innings while walking 3.1. This season, he’s only striking out 4.2, but has lowered his walk rate to 2.3. What’s happening is that League is throwing more strikes, but batters are hitting them.

Opponents are hitting .269 off of League this season, which is high for a closer. I’m not sure how comfortable manager Don Mattingly is in putting League in if opposing batters are going to be that successful at the plate against him.

League may only have two blown saves this season, but Kenley Jansen could be Los Angeles’ closer before you know it. League just hasn’t gotten the job done when the Dodgers need it most and Jansen would at least shake things up. 

3. Chris Perez, Cleveland Indians

There has to be something wrong with Chris Perez because he hasn’t looked himself lately.

There actually is something wrong—he has rotator cuff tendinitis, according to the Associated Press (via ESPN).

Before recently landing on the disabled list, Perez had been a disaster out on the mound for the Indians. He had a 4.32 ERA in 17 appearances and 16.2 innings of work while walking 5.4 batters per nine innings, which is far from good.

Perez has had eight save opportunities this season and has blown a pair of them. The two-time All-Star closer allowed a run and blew the save against the Blue Jays in his second appearance of the season and then allowed four earned runs against the Red Sox in his most recent outing.

When facing the Red Sox last Sunday, Perez walked three batters, allowed two hits and had to exit during an at-bat after just 0.2 innings because of discomfort in his arm.

Once healthy, it’ll be interesting to see what role Perez plays for Cleveland. Nothing was going the way he wanted it and that had an effect on whether the Indians were winning or losing games. It might be safer to give someone else a shot before he regains some confidence. 

2. Ernesto Frieri, Los Angeles Angels

Since the Los Angeles Angels acquired Ernesto Frieri in the middle of last season, he’s been their closer.

He did a fine job a year ago, but has been a train wreck in 2013.

Frieri is one of several closers in the league who are strikeout savvy. He has struck out an average of more than one batter per inning over the course of his career. He’s never had great command, as shown in his 4.81 career walk rate, but it’s never really been an issue.

In 2013, however, it’s been an issue. It appears that Frieri has lost all sorts of command this season, as he is averaging 6.75 walks per nine innings. Since Frieri usually only pitches an inning, that means that he is allowing at least one walk in more than six out of every nine appearances.

That would certainly make me nervous if I were an Angels fan. In my opinion, a "heart attack" closer isn’t necessarily one that gives up a ton of hits. A pitcher can be making good pitches, but the hitters are just making good contact. If a closer is walking a bunch of batters, that’s when he runs into issues.

As I said in the introduction, a “heart attack” closer doesn’t have to be a reliever who blows a lot of saves. That’s important to keep in mind here. Frieri is 11-for-12 this season, but it’s fair to say that he causes some duress out on the mound.

1. Huston Street, San Diego Padres

Huston Street used to be one of the best closers in baseball, back in his days with the Oakland Athletics and the Colorado Rockies.

Ever since coming to San Diego, however, he’s been a little bit shaky.

In Street's first season with the Padres a year ago, he was brilliant. He saved 23 games and posted a 1.85 ERA over 39 innings. He didn’t walk many batters and was averaging 10.85 strikeouts per nine innings, but that success hasn’t repeated in 2013.

This season, Street has blown just one save (remember about blowing saves and “heart attack” closers), but is only striking out 5.75 batters per nine innings while he has increased his walk rate by a full walk from a year ago.

The biggest problem with Street is that opponents are scorching a good portion of his pitches. In just 20.1 innings of work this season, he has allowed seven home runs. That’s more than triple the total he served up last season. If he allows four more homers, he will set a new career high.

In general, Street is striking out fewer batters than last year, walking more and allowing plenty of home runs. Those aren’t trends that a team wants to have in a closer.

I'm not sure how long the Padres will stick with Street, but if he continues to allow home run after home run, it can’t be much longer.