Where Are They Now: 2003 Saves Leaders

Relievers come and go in this game. It is true. For the most part, they are replaceable, interchangeable parts. It's one reason why giving a long-term deal to a pitcher other than a Trevor Hoffman or Mariano Rivera out of the bullpen is nuts. Let's look at the top closers from each league in 2003 and what they are doing now. I think this is especially interesting considering 2003 was the first year of steroids testing...but those tests were not revealed to the public (except for A-Rod and Sammy Sosa). So it's interesting to see what happened to some of these closers since strict and open steroids testing began.

 

American League:

1. Keith Foulke - Athletics - 43 saves. He led the AL in saves in 2003 but he was actually better in 2004 when he led the Red Sox to the World Series. After that? He was awful in 2005 and lost the closer job to Jonathan Papelbon in 2006, insulting Red Sox fans along the way. He took a year off, came back last year to pitch for Oakland, but is once again out of Major League Baseball, though he is pitching with the Newark Bears.
2. Eddie Guardado - Twins - 41 saves. "Everyday" Eddie was in the second year of back-to-back 40+ save seasons. He'd have one more big season as closer. Currently, he's pitching for the Rangers and has a 4.21 ERA in 32 games with no saves
3. Mariano Rivera - Yankees - 40 saves. 1.66 ERA and WHIP of 1.005. He walked 10 guys the entire season. His adjusted ERA was 265. Last season Rivera had a 1.40 ERA, a WHIP of 0.665, walked 6 guys the entire season and had an ERA+ of 317. This year? He's at a high pace for his career with 14.33 SO/BB. He doesn't seem to understand "slowing down" with 23 saves.
4. Jorge Julio - Orioles - 36 saves. That 36 save season came along with a 4.38 ERA. It ends up, that's under his career average (4.43). In 2009, he's pitching for the Brewers with a 7.79 ERA in 17.1 innings with no saves.
5. Troy Percival - Angels - 33 saves. From 1996-2004, Percival was among baseball's best closers with 313 saves, a 3.14 ERA, 6.2 H/9 and 10.3 SO/9. After 2004, he would bounce around from the Tigers, out of baseball, back to the Cardinals, and then to the Rays for the past two seasons. This season he had 6 saves and a 6.35 ERA in 11.1 innings when he went on the DL on May 22nd with shoulder tendinitis in his pitching arm.
6. Mike MacDougal - Royals - 27 saves. MacDougal made the all start team that season. He started out 2009 with the White Sox and had a 12.46 ERA in 4.1 innings. Now he's on the Nationals, serving as closer in their committee, racking up 5 saves (the only saves he's earned since 2005).
7. Lance Carter - Devil Rays - 26 saves. This was the beginning and the end of Carter's closing days as he was done with baseball after a 8.49 ERA in 2006. American baseball that is; Carter played for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan after that and tried to make a major league comeback in 2008 but couldn't make it out of the Blue Jays minor-league system.
8. Ugueth Urbina - Rangers - 26 saves. To be fair, he was traded at the deadline and helped the Marlins win the World Series so he should be higher on this list. He's currently serving a 14 year prison sentence in Venezuela.
9. Danys Baez - Indians - 25 saves. He would move on to Tampa Bay after this and pitch well as the closer for two seasons. Tampa capitalized on this and traded Baez and Lance Carter to Los Angeles for Edwin Jackson. Unfortunately, Tampa unloaded Jackson just a year early. Baez is currently pitching for the Orioles towards the end of a long-term deal in which he's pitch 94.2 innings with a 5.42 ERA and 3 saves. Don't sign relievers to long-term deals!
10. Shigetoshi Hasegawa - Mariners - 16 saves. His one season as closer, he was done with baseball after 2005. He was rumored to be the only Major League Baseball player to read the Wall Street Journal in the locker room, though.
11. Byung-Hyun Kim - Red Sox - 16 saves. This one was not pretty. He infamously gave the middle finger to the fans after being traded for fan-favorite, Shea Hillenbrand. Kim would try to go back to starting after this but ended his career with the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Marlins in 2007. He was once traded for Jorge Julio.

National League:

1. Eric Gagne - Dodgers - 55 saves. Gagne would win the Cy Young that year and come 6th in the MVP voting while setting records for consecutive saves without a blown save. But he would also be revealed by the Mitchell Report to be an HGH user and his acquisition by the Red Sox in 2007 is one of the rare big blunder by Theo Epstein. He pitched last year for the Brewers to a 5.44 ERA and has not pitched in the majors this season.
2. John Smoltz - Braves - 45 saves. From 1992-1999 as a starter: 115-71, 3.18 ERA. From 2001-2004 as a closer: 154 saves and 2.65 ERA. 2003 was once of his best seasons in the majors with career bests in ERA (1.12), WHIP (0.870), HR/9 (0.3), BB/9 (1.1), and SO/BB (9.13). He also had 10.2 SO/9 and gave up 8 earned runs all year. Wow. After rehabbing in the offseason, he's made 4 starts with the Red Sox, going 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA in 20 innings.
3. Billy Wagner - Astros - 44 saves. This was certainly the year of the closer in the NL. Wagner had a 1.78 ERA, a WHIP of 0.872, and 11 SO/9. Since 2003, he's had 160 saves. He hurt his arm last year with the Mets and is currently rehabbing.
4. Tim Worrell - Giants - 38 saves. This is why I say closers are interchangeable. Worrell had 38 saves that year filling in for Robb Nen. He had 33 in the 13 other seasons he pitched. He left baseball after coming back to the Giants for 2006 due to a nerve problem in his neck.
5. Rocky Biddle - Expos - 34 saves. Well someone had to close for them, right? It took me a while to figure out what team this guy actually pitched for, but then I remembered his season because I had him in Fantasy Baseball that year. When Omar Minaya needed to make up for trading away all those prospects for Bartolo Colon, he sent Colon to the White Sox and got Biddle, El Duque, Jeff Liefer and cash. El Duque never threw a pitch for Montreal, Liefer posted a lovely .193/.217/.330 line for the Expos before being put on waivers and Biddle was out of baseball after posting a 6.92 ERA in 78 innings in 2004.
6. Joe Borowski - Cubs - 33 saves. Borowski had an odd career. He bounced around from the Orioles to the Braves to the Yankees and then was out of baseball for 1999 and 2000. He joined the Cubs in 2001 and had a 32.40 ERA. 2002 he pitched better and by 2003 he was their closer with a 2.63 ERA, 1.054 WHIP and 33 saves. He would return to full-time closing in 2006 with Florida, save a league-high 45 games for the Indians in 2007 and then posted a 7.56 ERA in 2008 before being released in July
7. Matt Mantei - Diamondbacks - 29 saves. The D'Backs acquired him for Vladamir Nunez and Brad Penny. 2003 was Mantei's best year in the majors with a 2.62 ERA, 1.000 WHIP and 3.78 SO/BB. The next year he had a 11.81 ERA, a WHIP of 2.156 and 14.3 H/9. He was released by Detroit in 2006 without ever throwing a pitch in the majors for them and hasn't been seen since.  
8. Braden Looper - Marlins - 28 saves. He would be a decent closer for the Marlins but went to the Mets and couldn't hold a lead. He would move on to St. Louis (who traded him away after 1998 to get Edgar Renteria). There he would do well in relief for one season when the Cards won the World Series. Amazingly, they decided to move him to the rotation next season and he's been there ever since. He signed with the Brewers in the offseason and is 7-4 with a 4.94 ERA and a league-high 22 home runs.
9. Mike Williams - Pirates and Phillies - 28 saves. This was Williams last year in the majors. He was not good despite saving 28 games with a 6.14 ERA and 1.698 WHIP for those two teams.  
10. Jose Mesa - Phillies - 24 saves. He actually was a good closer in 2001, 2002 and 2004. This was just an off year. But was he ever off with a 6.52 ERA and 1.759 WHIP in 58 innings. He would bounce around a bit more before ending his career with the Phillies in 2007. They found out he was actually 47 that year (no joke) so it made sense that was his final year.

So only Mariano Rivera and Mike MacDougal are still closing 6 years later from this group. And only Rivera is still playing at a level somewhat equal to his 2003 season. Hopefully this will help to show you why teams should not overvalue pitchers in their bullpen. And why they should definitely NOT sign them to multi-year deals.