Release Jason Grilli

[Crimson's Ghost]

He sucks.

[Manfred]

He does now. Not the same as '13. Neither is the rest of this staff.

[Eaglealum]

Bad part is he just had a rest on dl... Still can't top 90mph. Either needs surgery or arms shot.. He is 38 . Sad but he's done. Watson needs to be closing and need to shop for help

[abpk2903]

You guys got me thinking, so I went on my mlb.tv app and watched his 9th inning again last night. All of his fastballs were between 92-94 mph. If I recall, last year they were 93-96. So his fastball is down a few ticks but I didn't notice any under the 90 mph range. His breaking ball still looks like it has a sharp break but he couldn't get it down in the zone. When you are a closer and only have a 1 run lead, every hitter is coming to the plate trying to find an elevated pitch he can drive.

IMO keep him in the pen but move him to a roll where every hitter isn't looking to drive the ball out of the park. Once he can get his pitches back down in the zone, reintroduce him to late in close/hold situations.

[Crimson's Ghost]

No deception in his pitches, though. He served up an 82 MPH changeup for a home run across the heart of the plate. He just isn't fooling anyone anymore. His 5+ ERA can attest to that.

[say_oww]

Mariano Rivera had very few blown saves, but a good many against Boston. A reliever, and in particular a closer, has an advantage in that the situation he is placed in is often for a small period of time, and the opposing hitters don't see him very often. The closer just needs to throw strikes and have a pitch that looks like it is a strike but gets out of the zone with late movement. Right now Grilli doesn't have that late movement and he has been burnt by teams that see him quite frequently, Cincinatti, Milwaukee. Add in red hot hitters like Ryan Braun and Todd Frazier who have seen Grilli many times, and its understandable how he has been getting beat recently. Once he gets his other pitches working with more consistency, his effectiveness will spike.

[Eaglealum]

Wehner was going on the other day about him consistently 89-90 . I didn't see last night, if he was at 92, at least that improved... Haha nothing else did

[Crimson's Ghost]

No guarantee a 38 year old pitcher is suddenly gonna get his groove back.

[Manfred]

EVERYONE eventually loses his edge. Fact of life. He should accept it, and his new role as set-up, or closer in a trailing situation.

[abpk2903]

Wehner was going on the other day about him consistently 89-90 . I didn't see last night, if he was at 92, at least that improved... Haha nothing else did

Over his last few appearances he has hit 94 numerous times. I think the arm is healthy. Crimson and Say-Oww are spot on that he doesn't have quite the break or deception he once had and teams have seen him a lot.

I think he needs to get the breaking ball down in the zone, as well.