Joakim Soria has been removed as the Royals closer. Whether it is short or long term remains to be seen but it highlights how quickly one of the best can falter. The role of closer can take a tole both physically and mentally and I believe it is the latter where Soria is struggling.
In the off-season Soria requested that he no longer be referred to by his nickname the Mexicutioner. That was an admirable attempt to distance himself and not glorify the violence taking place in his home country. Yet that struggle with his identity has carried over to the mound and he lost the ability to dominate like he did in the past.
Closers are often referred to as "Firemen" because it is their role to extinguish the hot bats of the other team at the end of the game. But closers are often fire-men in another sense in that their careers in the role burn hot and fast and often do not last long. That is one reason there is so much turn over in the closer position.
In many respects a closer is like a gun fighter. They have that same mentality to take on all comers and the goal is to be the last man standing. Yet toward the end of their career the gun fighter may get wore down and winces at the sound of firecrackers while closers may wince at the crack of the bat. It was said that there weren't many old gun fighters and the same is true of closers. Once the closer loses that killer instinct its time to hang up their mitt.
Its too early to tell if Soria will get that fire back in his belly. But if he is to reclaim the mound to save the game he is going to have to look inward to see how much fight he has left. Otherwise we may have just entered the era of Aaron Crow.
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