Kyle Finnegan leads the NL in saves. Yet when he enters the game, you could easily mistake it for a middle reliever entering a blowout for mop-up duty.
At other parks, when the closer enters, the entire stadium goes dark, intense music plays, a video montage of the closer striking out many men plays on the big screen, an intimidating hash is displayed on the ribbon monitors, etc. It can be one of the most thrilling and iconic moments in live sports.
I can't remember the Nationals ever doing something like this for a closer. The closest thing was for Todd Coffey. I used to think we just had a string of understated, humble players in the closer role but now I wonder if the organization just has a philosophical opposition to the over-the-top closer entrance. Maybe they've read the sabremetrics about closing not actually being that hard.
Is this something the team should invest in as it returns to contention?
