The Warning Track: Brett Cecil’s Bad Weekend
Posted Jun 22, 2015 10:43:12 AM.
Last Updated Jul 3, 2015 01:17:53 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
So, how was your weekend? If your name was Brett Aairon Cecil, odds are … not very good.
Not only was it a tough series for the Blue Jays, who lost two of three to the Baltimore Orioles at home, it was especially tough on Toronto’s closer, Brett Cecil. The Blue Jays managed to squeak away with one win in the series, but it very easily could’ve been a sweep for the Jays, or even a sweep for the Orioles.
Cecil appeared in two of the three games in that series. On Friday night, he entered the game in the ninth inning ahead by three runs and the Blue Jays barely escaped with the win 5-4. Then yesterday, Cecil entered the game with a tied score of 9-9 in the ninth, then proceeded to implode and surrendered four runs to the Orioles.
It’s never a good sign for a team to have one of their relievers struggle this mightily over the course of a week, but it’s even more concerning because this is Brett Cecil; the Blue Jays’ closer (so to speak).
Although Brett Cecil has been a mainstay in the Blue Jays bullpen since 2013, he’s experienced many more downs than ups during the 2015 campaign. In his past six appearances, Cecil has given up 10 earned runs, while opponents are hitting .352 off him.
Again, these are not qualities you want to see out of your back-end bullpen guys; the relievers who are supposed to be relied upon in high leverage situations.
Cecil claims that he’s tipping his pitches, but for a pitcher who relies heavily on his off-speed pitch, Brett Cecil simply isn’t getting those swings-and-misses like he was years prior. Batters are not offering at his curveball (Cecil’s go-to “out pitch), and thus he’s been walking more batters and putting more runners on base unnecessarily.
Many have long thought that Brett Cecil doesn’t have the genetic makeup to be the prototypical “closer”, and that’s certainly true. Cecil doesn’t possess a blistering fastball that many late-relief pitchers do; instead, he’s relied heavily upon his curveball to get batters out.
But when that curveball isn’t doing what Cecil wants it to, that’s what inherently leads to his struggles. I’d subscribe to the notion that ideally, Brett Cecil should remain as either the Blue Jays setup man or seventh inning reliever. But because the Blue Jays’ bullpen is in a constant state of flux, John Gibbons has been forced to go to a veteran reliever like Brett Cecil.
And over the course of the past two weeks, it just hasn’t panned out. This will likely lead to Brett Cecil being taken out of the closer’s role temporarily, which is the best short-term solution for the team. Perhaps the Blue Jays will see somebody like Steve Delabar or Liam Hendriks close in the meantime.
