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.