"I feel confident in all our relievers, but we're talking about a closer," Washington said. "We have guys in the clubhouse that have closed games, but we need somebody who is a bona fide closer. If we don't have that, we'll find one."

A vote of no confidence from the manager to his bullpen..............ouch!

Different mentality, as a Closer. I don't see much experience there.
The Old guys, Rhodes & Oliver will be like "Everyday Eddie" - Rolls
are Rolls. I don't remember anyone verbally stepping out, since NF
made his epiphany. With Wash speaking openly... it's another Psych
102 move, as it was starting Feliz yesterday. A Step Up Scenario.
"Put Me in Coach ... Give me the Ball".

Yeah need to have people with experience closing close games. It's not like we had a rookie step up and do it last year or anything

Ha, yeah can you imagine if we did Taylor? We would have lost 100 games at least

Yeah but Feliz was a kinda special case... He really wasn't supposed to close ballgames for very long, but he just took off with it, and understandably so. I think Ogando is the closest thing we've got to what it takes for a true closer.

I would trust Ogando in the 9th. He was incredibly good when he was given an inning completely to himself last season. If he was brought in to help a struggling pitcher, it seemed like the inherited runners scored a bunch more often than not. He's got overpowering stuff, and he's got at least 2 plus pitches to work with.

Perhaps there have been discussions along the lines of JD saying "if Feliz makes the rotation, I've had discussions with SD and I think Heath Bell can be had for a package of X, Y and Z". So maybe this isn't a blind comment of no faith in the rest of the 'pen. Maybe it's coming from a place of inside knowledge of a plan to replace Feliz via trade if it comes to that.

Rangers may go out and get an established 'Closer'.
I think Ogando is a natural for that role.
Strop can be a setup. We've got talent to handle it.
We know Daniels won't pay heavily for a 'Closer'.

I don't think this is a vote of "No Confidence". I think this is the manager saying we don't have anyone in the bullpen who can consistently close games. While Feliz came in a did it as a rookie last year, the chances of catching lightning in a bottle twice are very slim. Ogando does have closer's stuff, but he didn't seem to respond well to pressure last year. I could see the Rangers going out and possibly trading for an established closer (for Chris Davis perhaps?) to instill confidence in the back end of the bullpen.

@Jeremy "I don't think this is a vote of "No Confidence". I think this is the manager saying we don't have anyone in the bullpen who can consistently close games."

Washington does not know this. His quote is structured as a double dose of "yes, but"...... the template for delivering a vote of no confidence.

I think this is more of a motivational ploy for the players than a statement to JD. Notice that Wash didn't say this until most of the bullpen had gotten off to a bad start. Besides, Wash has to know that JD isn't going to make a move for a closer early in the year, much less when the internal candidates have all of 4 spring training innings under their belt.