Chicago Cubs: Evaluating Carlos Marmol’s place in team history

Carlos Marmol experienced a tumultuous run as closer of the Chicago Cubs. How should we remember him looking back on his tenure?

Who’s ready to ride the Marmol Coaster? Buckle your seatbelts, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Love him, hate him or harbor indifference toward former Chicago Cubs closer Carlos Marmol, he played an important role in the bullpen for a good while – while simultaneously costing us all some years on the back end of our lives.

The right-hander broke onto the scene in unceremonious fashion back in 2006, making 13 starts and a half-dozen relief appearances. He struggled to a 76 ERA+, 6.47 FIP and unsustainable (but telling) 1.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio, averaging 6.9 walks and 6.9 strikeouts in his 77 innings.

Chicago made the decision to transition Marmol to the bullpen that offseason – to tremendous results. The 24-year-old former catcher notched a sparkling 1.43 ERA in what was undoubtedly the best single-season performance of his career. His strikeout numbers exploded, as he averaged 12.5 punchouts per nine – and he became the go-to guy in the Cubs bullpen.

He followed that up with his lone All-Star season in 2008, when he made 82 appearances, working to a 2.68 ERA and 0.927 WHIP. He didn’t earn the closer’s job, though, until late in the 2009 season, when he replaced veteran right-hander Kevin Gregg.

Chicago Cubs: From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows

Marmol notched a career-high 38 saves in 2010, averaging a staggering 16 strikeouts per nine. Those efforts resulted in new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein extending his closer on a three-year, $20 million deal in early 2011.

And from there, the wheels came off in short order.

Simply put, in 2011, Marmol missed fewer bats. His walk rate remained largely the same, but his strikeout numbers fell and he allowed more hits and home runs. He really struggled at Wrigley Field (4.89 home ERA against a 3.06 road ERA) – and, while many things have changed over the last decade, Cubs fans’ impatience with ineffective relievers has not. But, still, big picture – he had turned in a pretty solid run. Maybe this was just a bump in the road, right?

Wrong.

In 2012, he bounced back to a degree, saving 20 games for an abysmal Cubs team that won just 61 games. But after that mini-resurgence, he was downright awful in the first half of 2013 and after reportedly expressing a desire to pitch for a different team (suffice to say he was not popular with fans at this point) – Epstein dealt Marmol and cash to the Dodgers ahead of the trade deadline in exchange for Matt Guerrier.

So what’s the point here?