Joe Nathan ranked as one of the surest things in baseball at the moment that his right elbow gave out in March 2010. At that point, the Minnesota Twins reliever had saved a league-leading 246 games since 2004 and was bringing a Mariano Rivera-type consistency to a team and bullpen that was constantly in contention for an AL Central title.
Just over one year and one Tommy John surgery later, he's facing the first real doubts of his career after being replaced by Matt Capps as the team's closer on Sunday morning. The news comes one day after Nathan surrendered a game-tying homer to Ben Zobrist and blew another save in Minnesota's 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.
Nathan has an 8.44 ERA with two blown saves over five chances this season. With Capps taking over ninth-inning duties, he'll now handle situations with lower pressure as he continues to fight back from a Tommy John process that is more difficult to recover from than its miracle arm fix sometimes implies.
"I don't think anything about this is easy. Coming back from Tommy John isn't easy," Nathan said. "It's a tough process, and to do it now while I'm closing games out, I think that's a tough gig when you're healthy."
Combine the surgery with Nathan's age (36) and it's clearly going to be an uphill battle for Nathan to be a dependable closer, let alone regain his status as one of the league's most elite closers. Yet the Twins are going to need to see some results from their revamped bullpen soon. Minnesota currently sits in last place in the AL Central with a 4-10 record, have produced a worst-in-baseball 41 runs this season and doesn't know when it will get Joe Mauer back from the disabled list.
But sometimes you have to face the facts and it sounds like Nathan is doing just that. Kelsie Smith of the Pioneer Press reports that it was Nathan who�broached the subject of relinquishing his ninth inning duties because he knew it'd be a hard decision for manager Ron Gardenhire to make by himself.
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