The closer who doesn’t close was almost the pitcher who doesn’t pitch. Before we get to Hector Rondon’s past, though, it’s important to highlight just how amazing his present is, considering it almost didn’t happen.

View photos Hector Rondon has saved nine of the Cubs' 35 wins this season. (Getty Images) More

Rondon is the Chicago Cubs’ closer, a job not dissimilar to a gardener in the Sahara. The Cubs are the best team in baseball, and the best team in baseball typically features a closer among the league leaders in saves. And yet Rondon finds himself tied for 23rd overall with just nine saves – two ahead of a pitcher who missed the first month of the season due to suspension, three in front of a guy who locked down his closing job last week, his opportunities lost not because of his failures but his teammates’ successes.

“I don’t have too many chances this year,” Rondon said. “My teammates are hitting so well late in the game. But I don’t worry about it too much. I worry about the games we’re winning.”

That’s 35 of their first 50 for those counting. And of those 35, nearly two-thirds have come by four or more runs. Yes, only 13 times have the Cubs bothered to win a game by three or fewer runs. And of their 15 losses, a dozen have come by three or fewer, meaning just 6 percent of the time have the Cubs lost a game that wouldn’t be considered close.

Now, this isn’t to say Rondon is bored. There might not be a more on-display smile in the Cubs’ clubhouse. Rondon is a wizened 28, his perspective constantly refreshed by the reminder of just how lucky he is to be here instead of working in a Venezuelan factory.

To understand why, go back to 2010. Rondon was one of the best prospects in the Cleveland Indians organization, a right-hander with a high-90s fastball and a ceiling to match. Some scouts saw him as a potential frontline starter. Then his elbow started to hurt. In August 2010, he needed Tommy John surgery. During his comeback, he broke a bone in his elbow. And that was it. Rondon planned on retiring.

“I was 100 percent done,” he said. “I told my girlfriend, my dad and my mom. And they agreed. If I wanted to do it, they were with me. I told the Indians I didn’t want to play any more baseball.”

The organization urged Rondon to reconsider. He was just 23. If he could shake the injuries, he had plenty of career ahead of him. We need you, Rondon was told. We believe in you. Just rehab it and maybe you’ll change your mind.

“Those last two months of the rehab, I still felt sore, still felt pain, but the velocity was coming good,” Rondon said. “When I finished my rehab, I still felt pain. But I still had good velocity. And after that, it was a different story. I knew I could pitch. I knew I could come back. So I was different mentally.”

Between 2011 and 2012, Rondon pitched a total of 10 innings. The Indians didn’t add him to their 40-man roster, which exposed him in December’s annual Rule 5 draft. The Cubs chose him second overall, a pick that looked a tad curious because of Rondon’s inaction but actually used a bit of brilliant inside information.

On the day before the Rule 5, Franklin Font, a coach with the Cubs, spoke with Cubs VP of scouting and player development Jason McLeod and international scouting special assistant Louis Eljaua about Rondon. They wanted to know about his makeup. Font raved. And his stuff? Well, Rondon had pitched 23 games that winter for Leones del Caracas of the Venezuelan Winter League – for whom Font happened to coach.

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