B.J. Ryan

Orioles Lefthander Makes Transition From Set-Up Man To Closer

In the two years before he became the Yankees’ closer in 1997, Mariano Rivera would enter games in the 8th inning as the set-up man to New York’s then-closer, John Wetteland. Now, eight seasons later, Rivera has established himself as perhaps the greatest closer in baseball history.

The Orioles are hoping that B.J. Ryan can make a similar transition this year, from stellar set-up man to closer extraordinaire.

In 2003 and 2004, Ryan earned the reputation as one of baseball’s best left-handed set-up men, snuffing out opponents in the 8th inning and then turning the ball over to Jorge Julio, whose job it was to close out Oriole victories in the ninth. Ryan now has supplanted Julio, just as the right-handed Rivera did Wetteland in New York after the 1996 season. Both men were dominating as set-up men. Rivera has been even more omnipotent as the Yankee closer.

Not every successful set-up man can segue smoothly into the closer’s role. It takes a certain mental toughness, as well as the requisite pitching ability and stamina, to handle the pressure of shutting down an opponent’s batters in the ninth inning with the game on the line, day after day.

Some baseball people believe there is little difference between pitching the eight or ninth innings when the fate of the ballgame is at stake. Others think the closer’s job is unique, that nothing in the game quite compares to handling the tension of being the final line of defense in preserving a one- or two-run victory.

“Being a set-up man is like being the closer,” says the master himself, Rivera. “You have to do the job whenever you come in the game, whether it’s the seventh or eight inning, or the ninth.”

But he acknowledges that there is one distinction between the two tasks, one that might seem relatively trivial to him but has been the undoing of others who have tried to move from set-up man to closer. “You have to realize that when you’re the closer, there’s nobody behind you,” he explains. “You have to get the job done yourself. But your attitude and approach, and mental make-up, are still the same. You have to get the job done, or you’re not going to be there long.”

Rivera, obviously, has thrived on the challenge of being that final bulwark in a tight ballgame, of knowing that if he fails, his team loses. In four of the eight years he has been the Yankees’ closer, Rivera has won the American League’s Firemen of the Year Award, bestowed upon the circuit’s top closer. Over the past three seasons Rivera has saved 90% of the games he has been brought in to culminate, with an exceptional 121 saves in 135 opportunities. For his career, he has 339 saves. Only one other pitcher in history, Trevor Hoffman of the Padres, has recorded more saves for a single club. Rivera is credited as much as any Yankee with being responsible for the team’s great success over the past decade.

Will Ryan, who is 29—two years older than Rivera was when he became Yankee closer—be able to succeed in a job that is one of baseball’s most mentally and emotionally demanding?

Rivera certainly thinks so.

“He’s one of the top left-handers in the game right now,” the Yankee says of Ryan. “That’s why he’s the closer.”

Mike Flanagan, one of two Oriole general managers and a pitcher himself in his playing days, believes there are differences between setting up a game for the closer and finishing off a game oneself. And he thinks Ryan is up to the challenge.

“You have to make an adjustment,” Flanagan says of the two jobs. “You’re really thinking more as a closer. B.J. is mentally equipped to handle the change. But an adjustment has to be made. It’s not just moving back one inning. You’re it. The end.”

Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli agrees.

“It’s an adjustment for him,” says the manager. “He’ll have to go about things differently than if he were setting up in the seventh or eighth inning.”

Ray Miller, Baltimore’s pitching coach, says he watched Ryan carefully at the beginning of the season to see how he would handle the change. “I was a little concerned about him before he got the first save [against Tampa Bay on April 12],” admits Miller. “After that, I knew it would be okay.” (Ryan has been used as a spot closer in the past. He picked up two saves last year and had eight for his career coming into 2004. But he wasn’t awarded the Orioles' full-time closer job until this spring.)

Some baseball coaches and managers believe a closer has to have the heart of a Hun, the disposition of a Barbarian, and the ferocity of a feral tiger to succeed as a major league closer.

On the surface, Ryan—a jovial good old boy from Louisiana—ap”appears to possess none of those attributes.

But looks can be deceiving, according to Miller.

“He isn’t too nice to talk to when he’s pitching,” the Oriole coach says of Ryan. “He’ll bite your head off. You’ve got to go out to the mound yourself to see that fire that says, ‘Get the hell out of here, I want to pitch.’ That’s a side of him that only the manager and pitching coach see. I think he’s just a big old strong country boy who competes and won’t be bothered by the pressure. He will keep that frame of mind—you kind of have to block everything else out—that you need to succeed as a closer.”

So what does Ryan think of the switch from set-up to closing?

“It’s tough to put your finger on the difference,” he says. “Before, I knew I would be matched up against a lefties. Now I face everyone.” Yet he still comes in occasionally in the eighth inning, and he goes through his pre-game and off-day routines and preparation the same as he did when he was the set-up man to Julio.

Ryan carries himself with much more confidence this year than he has in the past. But it doesn’t stem from the fact that he has a more glamorous job as closer as much as that he finally feels he is a legitimate major leaguer. “Mike Trombley [a former Oriole bullpen mate] told me that one day I’m going to know that I belong here,” he relates, “and that I didn’t have to be perfect every night to reach that point. You’ll know you can make pitches when you need to. You’ll know you belong.”

Ryan finally has achieved that belief in himself as a major leaguer. And besides Trombley, he credits former pitching coach Mark Wiley with helping him get there. “Mark Wiley helped me a ton,” he says. “But he can only help you so much. You’ve got to go out there and do it yourself. It just takes a little something to click, and you can have success.”

Oriole victories in April generally have been by a sufficient number of runs that they haven’t allowed for a save situation, limiting Ryan to only two save opportunities during the first three weeks of the season. Yet one of those two was a critical one in a game at Camden Yards against the Yankees on April 16. The team had taken a 7-6 lead over New York in the seventh inning on a Brian Roberts home run. In the top of the eighth the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs and one of their most dangerous hitters, Hideki Matsui, came to the plate. Mazzilli was antsy enough for the win that he didn’t want to wait until the ninth to bring in Ryan. “I was so pumped up,” Ryan says, “I was getting ready to pitch as soon as B-Rob [Brian Roberts] hit that home run. You could see how the inning was unfolding.” Ryan got two quick strikes on Matsui but then fell behind in the count, 3-2. “We had the momentum,” he recalls, “and I just knew I couldn’t give up a hit.” Catcher Javy Lopez put up his glove, Ryan hit it with a fastball, and Matsui whiffed. The closer then did his job in the ninth, and the Orioles had a victory.

Ryan admits to getting psyched up and emotional on the mound. He pumped his fist in a huge adrenaline rush when he struck out Matsui.

And that is one characteristic that sets him apart from Rivera. “He is unflappable,” Ryan says of his Yankee counterpart. “I’m not like him. He’s not an emotional guy. I get fired up. Emotion is what I play the game for. You have seven or eight guys behind you pulling for you. You can see the emotion.” As for pumping his first after striking out Matsui, Ryan says, “I’m not trying to show anyone up. You just get fired up.”

He concurs with Rivera, though, that there is a feeling when you’re standing out on the mound as a closer that you’re on the edge of the cliff, that no one is behind you. The game rests in your hands and on your pitching arm.

“It goes through every closer’s mind,” he says. “You’re only human. You know you’re it. But it shows they trust you. There’s nobody behind you. So you take a little pride out there with you.”

Some closers try to intimidate batters by staring them down or looking like King Kong out on the rubber. Not Ryan. He prefers to rely on his stuff. “I’m not a guy who’s into head games like that,” he says. But he knows that the game can turn on a dime, and that he has to rely on his teammates, just as they depend on him in the ninth inning. “Being a closer, you’re only as good as the guys playing behind you,” Ryan asserts. “And fortunes can turn in a second. Momentum can go both ways. And if something goes bad, you have to forget about it the next day. You want the ball again the next day. You’ve got to get over it.”

Even though he hasn’t reached the ripe old age of 30, Ryan is the dean of the Orioles, having worn the Orioles uniform without interruption longer than any other current player. He joined the Orioles on July 31, 1999 (along with minor league pitcher Jacobo Sequea), from Cincinnati in a trade that sent Juan Guzman to the Reds. (Current Orioles Sidney Ponson, Rafael Palmiero, and B. J. Surhoff all were with the team prior to Ryan, but they then played for other big league clubs before being reacquired by the Orioles).

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he says of his senior status on the club. “I just keep hanging around.”

How long Ryan stays around Baltimore could become an issue, however. He is eligible for free agency after the season and prefers not to be distracted by contract-extension talks during the months he is playing. Still, he says he is not closed to the idea of his agent, John Courtright, negotiating with the Orioles on a long-term contract, explaining, “I’ll let him do the talking on my behalf.

Meanwhile, he’ll continue to go out to the mound for the Orioles in tight ballgames in the ninth inning, trying to emulate the success of Rivera, relishing another chance to face a Hideki Matsui with the bases loaded and two outs.

“That was fun,” says Ryan, a big grin taking over his country boy face.