Steve Phillips

He's passionate.

He's got the fire that you want in a closer.

And so...

It was one that it probably took a little longer to get Hoffman out of that role that I would have liked, but I give them credit for making that tough decision and having a hard conversation.

It's made Hoffman better, too, and it's taken some of that burden off of him where he'd go out there and pitch in a still high leverage but less intense role where he doesn't have to be perfect.

And for Varlin, I remember the first game he came in to close.

Got a couple runners on, got a little dicey, but he got out of it.

And from that point, he seems like, you know what, I can do this.

I'm comfortable.

Because being a closer, yes, you have to have swing and miss stuff.

You have to have a stomach to be able to handle a situation.

But you also have to have that ability to bounce back when something goes wrong.

Now, not a lot's gone wrong for Varlin yet.

It will at some point blow a game at some point.

And how he comes back from that will be the critical test in all of it.

But I'm I'm very confident in him.

And I will tell you that, like, you know, David Bednar is the closer for the Yankees.

And he's been a closer for years with Pittsburgh and with New York.

I feel much more comfortable with Barlin coming into the game than with Bednar comes in the game.

And I don't even think it's close.