All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase, who had maintained a flawless save record since May, and the Cleveland Guardians secured their playoff berth in dramatic style with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday. After Jose Ramirez started on second as ...

The argument for a closer being considered for a Cy Young Award is that he often pitches in the most important situations, and his effectiveness has to be truly elite. The arguments against them mostly involve a workload issue, as starters pitch many, many more innings for their team, which has real value to a club over the course of a long season.