Mike Matheny discusses the sometimes competing goals to get a team wins and the closer saves:

Matheny said Sunday it’s appealing, but the save stat cannot be ignored.

“You want to be respectful, too, to what these guys are trying to do individually,” Matheny said. “For us as a team to move forward certain things need to happen and a lot of times it’s trying to create an atmosphere where each of these guys are able to achieve everything, and there are contracts involved. There are personal statistics that help drive personal achievement as far as salaries go. For us to be completely oblivious to that, I think is a mistake as well.

“Then you start having some friction,” Matheny continued. “There are outside influences that are constantly pushing these guys toward the statistics that are going to get them paid someday, right?”

The evolution of the closer is fascinating. Over time, starting pitchers worked less and less in games and in the season. At some point, a reliever started pitching the close of games, but not always automatically in the ninth inning. Often, a pitcher had to get in trouble in the ninth, and closers were often known as firemen. (When Bruce Stark drew his 1973 caricatures of the Yankees and Mets, Sparky Lyle and Tug McGraw were wearing fire helmets.) At some point, Jerome Holtzman decided the save stat should be tracked and came up with a definition, which after a few years and some tweaks was adopted by MLB. Once the save became a legitimate statistic, managers started using certain relievers to maximize their personal saves. With the one inning, three run rule, managers no longer waited for a pitcher to get in trouble. The closer started the ninth and did his best to get three outs.

So the use of relievers today was an evolutionary process that was accelerated by the adoption of the statistic. If the save was given a more subjective definition, if it could be given to the pitcher who in the opinion of the official scorer pitched out of the toughest situation, then bullpen use might be different. So teams have evolved the roles of seventh and eighth inning reliever, and in some cases these pitchers are just as good as the closer. That’s actually good for teams and pitchers. At some point, agents will make the case that the set-up man is just as valuable as the closer. At that point, their salaries might come into parity, and it may be that money comes out of the pockets of the closers.