Troy Percival

I have never understood why MLB players wait a few months after the season, before going under the knife. Especially somebody like Percival, who is old, and will undoubtedly take longer to recover. His career was already on ice once, you would think he would be doing everything possible, to get back out there.

Closers may be the most intriguing breed of baseball players. They are highly debated, analyzed, ridiculed, and speculated on. Their biggest contribution to a fantasy lineup (Saves), they have little control over. They warm up, get ready to pitch, and when their offense scores a run to put their team up 4, they sit down and go back to spitting seeds while a guy, possibly just as capable, making a fraction of what the closer makes, trots out for the 9th inning. If you tried to describe fully, the modern MLB closer to somebody who had never heard of the concept, they'd look at you like you were crazy.

the Sporting News ranks each American League team's bullpen, and projects who should be the closers, and setup.

Well, Joe Maddon already has decided where Percival will help the team the most—in the ninth inning.

“He’s the closer,” Maddon declared this afternoon. “I’ve already spoken to Al Reyes about it and Al was totally on board with the whole thing, he was an absolute pro, very respectful. We had a great conversation yesterday. Percy will close and Al’s going to set him up.”

2 years $8 million for a guy who was supposed to be done. cooked! kaput!

The deal contains a series of escalators that could push the total value of the package to more than $10 million, sources say. Percival took a physical in Tampa Bay on Thursday. Percival, 38, is joining the Rays for two reasons — the chance to close and the opportunity to reunite with manager Joe Maddon, who was the Angels' bench coach when Percival was the team's star closer.

The Yankees were willing to pay Percival a higher salary, sources say, but they wanted him as a set-up man for closer Mariano Rivera