Milwaukee Brewers

StaTuesday: Feliz can take aim on Brewers' all-time save leaders

Published Feb. 21, 2017 11:52 a.m. ET

Dave Heller

Free-agent signee Neftali Feliz arrived at Brewers camp and while he wasn't anointed Milwaukee's closer, he seems to the likely choice.

Manager Craig Counsell only said that Feliz will be counted on to "get important outs" for the Brewers, but that's been Counsell's mantra about relievers since he took over the job.

Feliz is the only player on Milwaukee's 40-man roster with any real experience closing out games in the majors -- he has 99 career saves, including 40 in 2010 with Texas -- and in his brief time as manager Counsell has shown he prefers to have one pitcher primarily finish out games.

In 2015, Francisco Rodriguez had 38 of Milwaukee's 40 saves. The other two were by Kyle Lohse, one of which was a three-inning save in a 10-3 victory and the other occurred in a 13-inning win.

Last season, it has been expected that Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith might split the closing duties, depending on a need for a righty or lefty on the mound. Jeffress ended up with 27 saves and Smith none before both were dealt away.

After the trades, Tyler Thornburg became Milwaukee's closer and had 13 saves. The Brewers had six other saves in 2016: two were extra-inning saves, one came in October after Thornburg blew a save in the ninth, two occurred after the regular closer was given a day off after pitching in back-to-back games and the other was a two-inning save in which the Brewers scored two runs in the ninth to make it a four-run lead, thus the regular closer was no longer needed.

So even if Counsell for whatever reason doesn't go with Feliz at the back end, his short history shows that he'd likely settle on one closer regardless. But Feliz certainly makes the most sense.

Even if Feliz is deemed a trade chip later this summer, based on his history and Jeffress' performance last year, Feliz has a good shot to have one of the top-25 all-time single-seasons years for a Milwaukee closer, as far as saves is concerned.

Feliz would need just 24 saves to tie for 25th on Milwaukee's all-time single-season saves list. Only 11 Brewers relievers have reached 30 saves in a season, and it has been done just 14 times overall.

Pitcher	Year	Saves
John Axford	2011	46
Francisco Cordero	2007	44
Francisco Rodriguez	2014	44
Danny Kolb	2004	39
Derrick Turnbow	2005	39
Francisco Rodriguez	2015	38
Bob Wickman	1999	37
Trevor Hoffman	2009	37
Doug Jones	1997	36
John Axford	2012	35
Dan Plesac	1989	33
Mike Fetters	1996	32
Ken Sanders	1971	31
Dan Plesac	1988	30
Rollie Fingers	1982	29
Doug Henry	1992	29
Rollie Fingers	1981	28
Salomon Torres	2008	28
Jim Henderson	2013	28
Mike DeJean	2002	27
Jeremy Jeffress	2016	27
Pete Ladd	1983	25
Bob Wickman	1998	25
Dan Plesac	1990	24
Derrick Turnbow	2006	24
John Axford	2010	24
Rollie Fingers	1984	23
Dan Plesac	1987	23
Mike Fetq	1995	22
Danny Kolb	2003	21
Tom Murphy	1974	20
Tom Murphy	1975	20

If Feliz could get to 25 saves, that would put him in a tie for 25th place on Milwaukee's all-time saves list. If he could come close to his single-season high of 40 (between 34-40 to be exact), Feliz could be No. 18 all-time on the list in just one year.

He's fairly certain to crack the top 33, as that's the number of pitchers in Brewers history who have 10 or more saves. Feliz might be able to do that in a month.

Player	Saves
Dan Plesac	133
John Axford	106
Rollie Fingers	97
Francisco Rodriguez	95
Bob Wickman	79
Mike Fetters	79
Derrick Turnbow	65
Danny Kolb	61
Doug Henry	61
Ken Sanders	61
Francisco Cordero	60
Doug Jones	49
Mike DeJean	47
Trevor Hoffman	47
Bill Castro	44
Chuck Crim	42
Tom Murphy	41
Bob McClure	34
Pete Ladd	33
Jim Henderson	31
Eduardo Rodriguez	30
Curt Leskanic	29
Solomon Torres	28
Jeremy Jeffress	27
Frank Linzy	25
Mark Clear	22
Bob Gibson	13
Tyler Thornburg	13
Diego Segui	12
Tom Tellmann	12
Jerry Augustine	11
Jim Slaton	11
Eric Gagne	10

With Feliz on a one-year deal, we might be having this conversation again next year.

Really, that shouldn't be a surprise. Of all the 33 pitchers who have 10 or more saves with the Brewers, only 10 had 200 or more relief appearances with the club, and of those 10 just five pitched at all in this century (and one just barely): Bob Wickman (1996-2000), Mike DeJean (2001-03), Derrick Turnbow (2005-08), John Axford (2009-13) and Francisco Rodriguez (2011-15).

Dave Heller is the author of the upcoming book Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow as well as Facing Ted Williams Players from the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns