Cleveland Indians: No Need to Panic About Cody Allen

Cleveland Indians closer Cody Allen had a game to forget Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox.

The 162 games played throughout an MLB season are filled with ups and downs for every team in the league. The great teams have more ups, but there are still some deflating downs, causing fans to overreact and panic.

The Cleveland Indians had one of those down moments last night against the Chicago White Sox. Well, Cody Allen had a down moment.

Allen came on in the ninth inning to pick up his 24th save of the season, but everything went horribly wrong. One grand slam and a total of five runs later, a 7-5 lead for the Indians turned into a 10-7 victory for the White Sox.

Cue the Cody Allen hate.

Twitter and Facebook exploded with calls for Allen to be removed from the closer role and replaced by Andrew Miller. But personnel moves rely on more than just knee-jerk reactions.

Obviously, the blown save ruined an otherwise solid game for the Indians. Carlos Carrasco struggled early, but the offense was able to give Allen a two-run lead heading into the ninth. What fans may have not realized is just how much of a help Allen has been to the team all season.

It is easy to be negative and demand change when things go wrong, but Allen has been a reliable closer for most of the season. He only has three blown saves this season, and was pitching in his fourth game in five nights yesterday. That caused Terry Francona to explain why Allen maybe should have been allowed some rest last night.

Fans who immediately get angry and jump to social media to complain expect these players to be perfect for 162 games, which is just not a realistic expectation.

And Allen, for the most part, has been close to perfect all season. But the current state of instant social media reaction makes every game seem like a World Series game, so fans now expect Miller to take over as closer and fix last night’s loss.

The best thing to do is relax and move on from last night’s loss. Calling for Allen to be removed from the closer role would make sense if these horrid performances were common, but it was an anomaly.

Andrew Miller is indeed a great option at the closer role, but even he may have been a bad option last night after throwing two innings Tuesday night. He may be called upon tonight to close if the Indians are in such a position, as Allen needs time to recover both physically and mentally from last night’s loss, but a great performance should not lead to a demotion for Allen.

The Indians head into tonight’s game with a 5.5 lead over the Detroit Tigers, and the worst thing to do would be to make any drastic changes to the roles that have been established all year.

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Once September hits and the pennant race heats up, the closer role itself may turn into a shared situation between Allen and Miller. But removing Allen permanently right now and making Miller the closer may disrupt the process more than it would help, at least right now.