“Who the heck is Cody Allen?” That is what a lot of readers as casual baseball fans are thinking. Even someone who watches every day does not really know or remember Allen, aside from fans in Cleveland.
The righty is the all-time leader in saves for the Cleveland Indians with 149. He has closed out World Series games, and had one of the more dominant postseason runs in recent history for a relief pitcher. Unfortunately, it was actually overshadowed by even more insane dominance from his setup man in those same playoffs.
Early Career
Prior to the 2016 season, Allen was just a young, upcoming relief pitcher for the Tribe. In 231 innings pitched, he recorded 60 saves with a 2.64 earned run average, and a WHIP of 1.204. Great numbers for a very young arm. He was one of those players that really only die-hards and Cleveland fans even knew of.
His 2016 numbers were right around his career average. Allen never pushed into the category of “elite”, but his numbers were among the best in the game for a closer. He never made the All-Star game, he never won any awards, and never got the recognition that he deserved. Part of that was due to playing in a “small market” town. Another was that he had not played on a big stage. When he finally did, he was overshadowed again.
The Indians brought up Francisco Lindor at the tail end of the 2015 season in order to make a postseason push. They ended up finishing the season a few games back of the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics for the wildcard, but for the first time since the 2013 miracle September, there was hope that this team could contend for the playoffs.
In 2016, they took that massive leap and were able to win the American League Central for the first time in nine years. Cleveland was able to ride that wave all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. Your author refuses to talk about what happened in that game.
Postseason Dominance
When you think of the Indians’ 2016 run you think of a dominating rotation featured by, at the time, 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. The emergence of young stars Lindor and Jose Ramirez also come to mind. Andrew Miller basically took over all of Canada when he decimated the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS.
What you don’t think about is how dominating Allen was after Miller finished making batters look silly with a devastating slider.
Closers do not typically get the fame because of how little they pitch throughout the course of a season. Allen only had 13.2 IP in the 2016 playoffs, less than one inning pitched per game. However, he pitched in the most important part of the game in the ninth inning.
There were times throughout this postseason where he was needed prior to that. When Trevor Bauer was forced out of his Game 3 ALCS start against the Jays with the now infamous drone incident, Allen’s services were required early as the team was in a jam and it was a bullpen game.
In that 2016 postseason, Allen did not allow a single runner to cross the plate. He struck out 24 batters, saved six of Cleveland’s 15 games (including one in the World Series), and pitched two scoreless innings in a hectic Game 7. Without Allen, the Indians don’t go to extra innings in the season-deciding game. Frankly, they do not even make the World Series without Allen and Miller.
Allen has officially retired at the age of 32. He never was the same after 2017, with only two mediocre years to follow. He officially became the Indians’ all-time saves leader in a year that saw his ERA balloon to 4.70 and he would constantly make things more intense than necessary. That said, the closer’s importance for the 2016 team is often lost in the brilliance of other players on the team.
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