To be one of MLB's most successful franchises, you have to be able win close ballgames. In order to do that, you have to have a well-trusted arm at the back end of your bullpen ready to shut the door with the game on the line.
Most teams in the league have closing pitchers on their roster who can hit triple digits on the radar gun when needed and hover around the mid-90s mark consistently. The Atlanta Braves, however, have been notorious over the last decade or longer for just making sure their closer can get outs efficiently and not prioritizing velocity.
Sure, Atlanta has had arms that could ramp up the heat when necessary, but this wild stat proves the Braves organization has a type when it comes to closing pitchers.
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Recent Atlanta Braves closers all have something in common
Saturday night, Raisel Iglesias took the mound for the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in the top of the ninth inning. Brian Snitker's closer was looking to shut the door and add another save to resume. Before Iglesias threw a pitch, FanDuel Sports Network broadcast displayed a shocking stat that had a lot of former Braves on the list.
A leaderboard for the most 10-pitch or fewer saves since 2010 was shown with five names and four of them have worn an Atlanta Braves jersey, most fairly recently. Kenley Jansen is at the top of this list with 66, followed by Mark Melancon (62), Craig Kimbrel (53) and current Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias (47), who is tied with Jonathan Papelbon.
The fact that the majority of these pitchers on this list played for the Braves at some point in time shows that Atlanta truly values control and pitching to contact over velocity and strikeouts when considering a closing pitcher.
Don't get it twisted, all of these greats have struck out their fair share of batters but there is something to be said about having so many innings with 10 pitches or less thrown to record a save. This is the perfect statistic to show the aspiring big league pitcher who is only concerned about velocity and how many strikeouts he can rack up. The Braves have been more than successful from 2010-2025 and have done so with an interesting approach regarding the closing pitcher role.