After blowing his fourth save of the season on Tuesday by giving up a walk-off grand slam to the Oakland Athletics‘ Khris Davis, Shawn Tolleson has been removed from the closer’s role with the Texas Rangers.
Per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, upon being informed of the decision, Tolleson said, “It wasn’t anything that surprised me.” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said the team is “gonna wrap our arms around Tolly and figure out what’s going on,” per Jared Sandler of 105.3 The Fan.
Per Wilson, the Rangers will go with Sam Dyson as their new closer. The right-hander hasn’t been overpowering this year with 13 strikeouts and six walks in 19 innings, but he’s been steady with a 1.89 ERA.
Tolleson has been awful so far in 2016. The right-hander has a 9.20 ERA with 23 hits, five home runs allowed, 11 strikeouts and five walks in 14.2 innings.
The 28-year-old Tolleson was tied for the American League lead with 11 saves at the time of his demotion despite those horrid numbers, which says all anyone needs to know about the validity of saves as a statistic of any value.
The straw that ultimately broke Tolleson’s back as the Rangers closer was an 8-5 loss against the Athletics on Tuesday in which he allowed two hits and one walk before Davis’ blast to end the game.
Per Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News, Tolleson was upfront about his sequencing during the at-bat against Davis and why he didn’t try to change speeds:
There’s been no decline in Tolleson’s stuff in terms of velocity. All of his pitches have actually ticked up this season, including the fastball at a career-best 93.1 mph, per FanGraphs. He’s just not locating anything and, by his own admission, not trusting his off-speed stuff, allowing hitters to sit on the heater.
Tolleson had been money for the Rangers with a 2.88 ERA the past two seasons and career-high 35 saves in 2015. There’s no reason to think he can’t regain the closer’s job, but with a team that’s good enough to make a playoff run, he’s going to have to work things out in low-pressure situations.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com