Neftali Feliz expected to remain at closer next season

You wouldn’t know it by Jon Daniels’ somewhat reflective comments to the media today, but Rangers actually still have a shot of winning this series. Granted, a pretty small one.

Anyway, one of the notable things to take away from today is that Daniels told Jeff Kaplan of ESPNDallas.com that he expects Neftali Feliz to remain in the closer role next season.

“Probably the two questions were can he close and can he start?” Daniels said. “You knew that somewhere that arm is going to play. I think we’ve definitively answered one of them. There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind he can close. We don’t know whether he can start and I don’t know if we’re going to find out. We’ve talked about it at some point that we might. We’re not going to close that door, but we’re also not going to speculate on it any more than is necessary. He’s our closer. I would expect he’ll be our closer.”

Feliz, 22, compiled a 2.73 ERA, 71/18 K/BB ratio over 69 1/3 innings during the regular season. He also set a major league rookie record by notching 40 saves in 43 chances.

It’s difficult to mess with a good thing, but Feliz obviously could provide much more value to the team in the long-term if he is moved to the starting rotation. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about the Rangers’ offseason plans once this series is over, but it will be interesting to see if Daniels wavers a bit on this should Cliff Lee sign elsewhere this winter.