{"id":619530,"date":"2026-03-12T03:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/619530\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:25:15","slug":"diamondbacks-reacts-survey-closing-time-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/619530\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Reacts Survey: Closing time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here<\/a> to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.<\/p>\n

It looks as if, once again, the Diamondbacks will be going into the season without a regular closer. Strengthening the bullpen was one of the major concerns this winter, after it proved such a problematic area in 2025. But it appears that is happening across other spots, rather than closer. Given the expected return of A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez at some point in the first(ish) half of the season, I can kinda see the point in not splashing out big-time on a closer. But, let\u2019s be honest, we were all expecting better than Taylor Clarke and Paul Sewald as major-league signings this off-season, no offense intended to those two.<\/p>\n

While it seems likely that manager Torey Lovullo will play match-ups, rumblings indicate<\/a> that Paul Sewald may be the main man to be leaned upon in save situations, on the back of improved velocity this spring. Sewald has played down any such notion, telling Arizona Sports 98.7<\/a>, \u201cThey\u2019ll pitch me when they decide to pitch me.\u201d But fans may be a little gun-shy of this idea, considering we have been here before. Sewald was the closer out of the gate in 2024, but was relieved of the role<\/a> after a terrible July, where he had a 10.80 ERA and went 0-2, with four blown saves. You\u2019re forgiven if putting him back in the roles seems almost like the definition of insanity.<\/p>\n

However, this poll is designed to find out less what you think the team will do, and more what you think they should do. Outside of Sewald, there are a number of possible candidates, though all of them come with question marks of varying sizes. For example, Kevin Ginkel has closing experience with 16 career saves. But he had a rough go of things last year, posting a 7.84 ERA. There\u2019s no obvious and outstanding candidate, which is why even a non-roster invitee like Jonathan Lo\u00e1isiga could be in the mix. We saw this work out very well last year, with non-roster invitee Shelby Miller, who ended up leading the team in saves by the end of the season.<\/p>\n

So what we have below is a list of potential candidates. Which one would you LIKE to see occupy the closer\u2019s position for the D-backs, until the more established names of Puk and Martinez come back? Or if you feel the \u201ccloser by committee\u201d thing is a good idea, that would be \u201cother\u201d, I guess. As ever, you can explain your decision in the comments below\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,75962,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-619530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks-discussion","11":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-diamondbacks","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116214072979612828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}