2015 Rangers Positional Review: Closer

With the Rangers' surprising season in the books, let's take a look at the season on a position-by-position basis.

2015 Closer
The guy: Shawn Tolleson
The forgotten: Neftali Feliz
The as-needed: Sam Dyson

The Rangers' bullpen was a dumpster fire for the first half of the season, but after the middle of May, it had at least one bright spot in Shawn Tolleson, who was promoted the closer's role after Neftali Feliz was demoted and skipper Jeff Banister declared a "no-roles" bullpen. That was his stance for a while, but once Tolleson got the gig, he never relinquished it.

When it was all said and done, Tolleson was 6-4 with a 2.99 ERA in 72 1/3 innings with 35 saves in 37 chances in the regular season. In the postseason, he allowed one hit in three innings and fanned three with a 0.00 ERA. He was voted the Rangers Pitcher of the Year by the local chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Before Tolleson took over, Feliz fell apart as the Rangers closer, was demoted, sent to the minors and waived before he picked back up with the Tigers.

Feliz was 1-2 with a 4.58 ERA and had six saves before blowing his last one in May. Sam Dyson was a man among boys for much of his Rangers tenure, at least until that fateful homer he allowed to Jose Bautista in the Rangers' Game 5 loss to Toronto in the ALDS.

As a whole, we'll give the closer spot a solid A for the year.

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