Earlier today, Rangers closer Neftali Feliz said that he wants to continue finishing games for the rest of his career in an interview with USA Today's Jorge L. Ortiz. After Texas faced the Athletics today, Feliz backtracked from that statement, writes T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com.
"Right now, I'm focused on being healthy and getting back to being the closer," said Feliz, who will turn 23 years old tomorrow.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told USA Today that the team intends to keep Feliz as its closer for the rest of the season, then consider his role for 2012 in the offseason. If Feliz does stick to his guns and decide that he wants to continue to close, Daniels says that they'll weigh that in their decision.
"We'll take his feelings, as well as team need and other factors, into consideration over the winter,'' Daniels wrote via e-mail. "He actually makes a pretty good case for starting by suggesting relieving is more physically demanding. We'll look at that in the offseason.''
Before the start of the season, the Rangers considered moving Feliz into the 2011 rotation. Recently, Daniels said that the organization definitely believes that the youngster has the stuff to start. A March MLBTR poll showed that readers were pretty evenly split on whether or not Feliz should start.
