"Felipe Alou knew a thing or two about developing young starting pitchers and closers when he managed the Montreal Expos. Just ask John Wetteland or Pedro Martinez, for starters.

Alou's Expos teams were a day late and a dollar short at the best of times, so when the value of a closer to a rebuilding team became a topic of discussion, he'd argue that nothing was worse for a young starting staff – "killing" was the word he used – than a blown save. In addition to managing pitch counts when you work with young starters, you also manage frustration.

So it makes sense that Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos would flip Mike Napoli to the Texas Rangers for Frank Francisco as he did Tuesday. There is no three-way battle for the closer's job between Octavio Dotel, Jon Rauch and Francisco. It is Francisco's, unless Anthopoulos has another deal lined up.

The Blue Jays scouting reports say the 31-year-old Francisco is a plus-fastball and plus-slider who went unsigned as a Type-A free agent this season. Of course, that was after Francisco lost the closer's job two weeks into the 2010 season to phenom Neftali Feliz, and as the Blue Jays own Jason Frasor will tell you, teams don't give up a draft choice to sign a middle reliever or set-up guy. So Francisco accepted the Rangers' offer of salary arbitration instead of free agency.

Francisco requested $4.8-million (U.S.). The Rangers countered with $3.5-million. So even if the Blue Jays lose this hearing, they'll be on the hook for less money than they would have been with Napoli (who requested $6.1-million, compared to a team offer of $5.3-million).

As was the case with the $86-million remaining on Wells's contract that was sent to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Napoli and Juan Rivera, Anthopoulos is showing a kind of faith in his young team. (Let's do this one more time, shall we? If the Blue Jays really want to be the next Tampa Bay Rays or Minnesota Twins, young, homegrown, arbitration-eligible players are going to need to put up some bank-breaking statistics. That's where Wells's savings will go.) If Francisco transitions back to a closer's role – he had 25 saves for the Rangers in 2009 – there is a chance a team would give up a draft pick to sign him next winter. Lots of saves means the team's playing well. Lots of relievers prevent the young starters' arms from being overtaxed. "