Phillies' Hector Neris: Will compete for closing role this spring

Neris is one of three or four pitchers who will enter spring training in a competition to become the Phillies' closer, Jim Salisbury of CSN Philadelphia reports.

Analysis:

He'll be competing with Joaquin Benoit, Jeanmar Gomez and possibly Edubray Ramos for the closing gig, but Neris is the favorite for the job. He evolved into an elite reliever last season by throwing a nasty splitter nearly 50 percent of the time, which led to an impressive 11.4 K/9.