Have the Marlins found their closer?

July 5th, 2022

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Intimidating. High-octane stuff. Are these traits a big league closer must have?

"I think he just has to be resilient from the standpoint of it can't bother him if he puts a couple of runners on or he doesn't save one," Marlins manager Don Mattingly recently said. "I think he's got to be the same guy the next day. There has to be something in this guy that likes that moment. Not afraid of it. And if it doesn't go well, it bothers him, but the next day they're the same and they're back. That's the thing they have to have.

"Obviously, you want guys with stuff, because you're putting them in situations where sometimes it's the top of the order. You're going to have to go through everybody. Game's on the line, teams are going to be more patient. They're going to be focused on you. It's not the same as in the sixth. The stuff helps, being able to have swing-and-miss stuff helps."

While Mattingly has coyly stayed away from calling Tanner Scott the club's closer, he has been used in those situations since June 2. The 27-year-old southpaw certainly fits the description Mattingly provided.

Acquired in a trade with the Orioles right before Spring Training ended, Scott always has had the stuff. According to Statcast, he is in the 99th percentile for fastball spin and 98th percentile for whiff percentage thanks to a nasty slider. Scott's issue during his six-year MLB career has been throwing strikes, something that resurfaced on Sunday, when he hit and walked a batter before coughing up the game-tying knock in the ninth.

Outside of shaving his mustache following his first blown save in a walk-off loss on June 15 in Philadelphia, Scott has remained the same -- tossing six consecutive scoreless outings before Sunday's second blown save in an eventual 10th-inning win.

"I definitely like it," Scott recently said of closing. "It's an adrenaline rush. When you get your name called it's like, 'My turn.'"