Rafael Soriano melts down in 2014
There are two ways that a player’s ability can fade. It can be a slow, painful crawl into eventual ineffectiveness. Or it can be sudden, like the flip of a light switch, from “good” one day to “washed up” the next.
For Rafael Soriano, it was the latter. His 2014 season, one that began with such promise, turned into a sideshow. It was a disaster, a full-blown dumpster fire that appeared with rip-the-band-aid-off immediacy. It was the sort of thing that no one saw coming, and that only served to make it all the more painful to watch.
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Soriano actually got off to a solid start in 2014, and through the first months of the season, his numbers steadily improved. His ERA admittedly went up, but it could only rise from the 0.00 that he posted through April. Against Soriano, hitters were finding little success, as well. From April to June, Soriano’s average surrendered fell from .177 to .125; his OPS against fell from .469 to .442.
Then came July, the All Star break, and the meltdown.
From July 15th on, Soriano was no longer the same pitcher. He managed a weak façade for a while, managing to scrape out a few close saves in spite of surrendering runs, but it was painfully obvious that his effectiveness had disappeared. His July ERA was an unseemly 5.40, and his slugging percentage against leapt to .485, higher than even his OPS surrendered in the early part of the season.
At first, the hope was that Soriano just had some cobwebs, a little All Star break hangover that he would eventually climb out of. That never happened. Instead, Soriano’s numbers stayed sky high. And after only two blown saves prior to the break, Soriano managed five more after.
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The last pair of those were the worst of the group. In back-to-back nights, Soriano coughed up a lead, one of which was three runs strong. This turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Unable to ignore the situation any longer, manager Matt Williams was forced to relieve Soriano of his role as the closer.
At first, Williams attempted to downplay Soriano’s collapse, covering the wound with comments about how they would “continue to evaluate” their closer, hoping some miracle solution happened along. But the writing was on the wall. Soriano had lost his mojo, and with October rapidly approaching, Williams did not have the luxury to wait for him to find it.
The closer role fell back to Drew Storen, and Soriano, after bullpen sessions and an extended break, was relegated to late-inning mop up duty. The results showed little improvement. In September and October, with Soriano pitching in mostly low leverage positions, his ERA was 7.56, with opposing hitters posting an .881 OPS.
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It wasn’t just the numbers that told the story, though. After the demotion, Soriano never looked like himself again. Granted, Rafael was never one of those psychotic, overly theatrical guys (see: Brian Wilson); the triumphant untucking of the jersey was as emphatic as Soriano got. But in his new role as an ordinary bullpen option, Soriano looked completely disinterested, like he’d rather be anywhere else but on the mound.
The Nationals have a team option for 2015 worth $14 million, but it seems almost laughable to think the team would exercise that. Sure, the possibility exists that Soriano will fix whatever’s ailing him and return to being a serviceable reliever. At that price, though, the gamble is just too risky. Better to hand the job over to Storen or try to find a replacement in free agency.
It remains yet to be seen whether or not Nats fans have seen the last of Soriano in a Washington uniform, but at this point, it’s all but certain that they’ve seen the last of him as a closer.