Nothing personal against Milwaukee Brewers closer Eric Gagne, but his placement on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder tendinitis Friday served as sweet, sweet relief for all parties involved. Manager Ned Yost, his teammates who can feel safer with ninth-inning leads, and fantasy owners, who have suffered through a 6.98 ERA, can turn the page on ugly chapters in their teams’ histories.

Maybe temporary replacement Salomon Torres takes control of the closer role in Gagne’s absence, or maybe Gagne immediately re-claims the job upon his return. Either way, we’ll get a better, healthier (physically and mentally) Brewers closer when Gagne is due back in two weeks. Of course, it couldn’t have gotten much worse with Gagne issuing walks and base hits to every Tom, Dick and Harry who grabbed a bat against him.

Torres has been a closer on two occasions, for parts of the 2006 and 2007 campaigns with the Pittsburgh Pirates. While he will never be mistaken for Jonathan Papelbon, he did a serviceable job racking up 24 saves in 33 opportunities. His best work came in 2006 when he saved 12-of-15 games, pitched a whopping 93.1 innings of relief, and posted a 3.28 ERA.

This season, Torres is 3-1 with one save and a 3.10 ERA in 23 appearances (29.0 innings). For the remainder of the year, Torres has better-than-average odds of recording more saves than Gagne. He could pitch lights-out and make the decision easy for Yost, or he could stumble back upon the job if Gagne suffers a setback or butchers more save opportunities.

In a keeper league, I cut Gagne when he was deemed to be “out indefinitely,” hedging that his career as a closer was over. In retrospect, that’s a rash move, but I was willing to do something stupid to get him off my roster for good. Let somebody else deal with the headaches.

The conservative approach would be to stash him on your bench, pick up Torres, and cover all your bases. Weigh the benefits of Gagne-less peace of mind against a handful of saves, and see where your priorities are.

Dustin Hockensmith is editor of ImaginaryDiamond.com. He can be contacted at dhockensmith[at]fantasysports101.net.