The Houston Astros needed to find help for their bullpen over the winter. They did not need a closer, not really -- but they signed one anyway.
And not just any closer. The Astros landed Josh Hader, the top free agent reliever, and perhaps the game's best current fireman, with the largest present-value contract a reliever has ever signed. Now they have two closers, though it will be Hader who gets the bulk of the save opportunities that were once the domain of Houston's incumbent closer, Ryan Pressly.
"Our main offseason target was to strengthen the bullpen," Astros GM Dana Brown said during the spring, summing up an otherwise relatively quiet winter for Houston.
Sounds good, but locking in the game's best closer isn't the only way to go about improving a relief corps. Here's a closer look at how some of the league's best bullpens have been built, as well as a deep dive into the strategy of the Astros -- and their opponents this weekend, the AL West rival Texas Rangers.
