RADIO
Drew Storen was demoted from his closers role with the Washington Nationals after the team traded for Jonathan Papelbon. Storen isn’t exactly pleased by the demotion, according to ESPN.com.
Storen has 29 saves and a 1.73 ERA in his first year as the closer, according to baseballreference.com. Despite the success, Washington is allowing Papelbon to become the closer because he wouldn’t have accepted the deal unless he was guaranteed the role.
"All I'm going to say is that I'm aware of the move, and I've talked to Mike about it and talked to my agent and we've had some ongoing discussions, and until those have progressed, I'm going to leave it at that and no comment for now," Storen told ESPN.com. "As the situation goes, I'll keep you guys posted."
Papelbon has 17 saves with a 1.59 ERA. In eight of his last nine seasons, he had at least 30 saves. Throughout his 11-year career, he has a combined 342 saves and 761 strikeouts while making six All-Star teams and winning one World Series. He’s been one of the better closers in baseball since he’s been in the MLB.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo told ESPN.com that he talked to Storen about the trade and and the move to become the team’s set-up man. He said Storen was fine with the move.
"Papelbon is our ninth-inning pitcher," Rizzo told ESPN.com. "Drew will pitch the ninth inning at times when Papelbon is unavailable and be our setup guy in the eighth inning as we are constructed today.
"[Papelbon] hasn't pitched too many three-days-in-a-row stints. We're going to be careful with him, and we feel that we've got two terrific, elite ninth-inning guys who can close out games in pressure situations."
