Charm City 2063.6 - Injury Leads to a Closer Look?

[DaveB]

Back on May 4th our bullpen took a major hit as we lost Miguel Reyes for 2-3 months with a strained forearm. Reyes as you may know has been seen by us to be the closer of the future since we signed him in 2060 and he’s done the job well since being promoted into the closer role last year.

Unfortunately for Reyes, when an injury occurs a door opens for someone else and that someone is 26 year old Evgeny Partyka. We acquired Partyka via trade back in 2058 and our thought process was that he had back of bullpen potential. He’s struggled quite a bit coming into 2063 posting a 5.04 ERA last year in his first extended look in Charm City. Now he’s looking at possibly unseating Reyes.

Since taking over the closer role Partyka has pitched in 16 games earning 13 saves and generating a 1.97 ERA with 6 walks and 21 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.

“We always knew that Evgeny had the potential to be a very good pitcher out of the pen late in the game and he’s really been very good since sliding into the closer role. We had a few eyebrows raised when we announced him as the closer because most assumed Seung-jin Cho would take over. We went with Partyka because we value Cho’s ability to throw multiple innings and I felt Partyka’s style might be better suited in the closer role. He’s had control issues in the past and without worrying about leaving runners on base he’s been able to cut loose” said skipper Jimmy Dias.

What does the future hold? No one knows. Reyes has been working hard rehabbing from his injury and some have said he’s a bit stronger now than at the beginning of the season. Some feel that putting Reyes in the setup role with Cho leading to Partyka would be a great idea as it could make it a 6 inning game. We’ll see what happens, but as long as Partyka keeps performing we have an interesting decision to make in 5-6 weeks.

[Graham]

Time to get this Partyka started.