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Cubs Closer Wade Davis: Every Inning Is Created 'Pretty Equal'

(CBS) Wade Davis is the newly minted closer of the Cubs after being acquired from the Royals in a deal Wednesday that sent outfielder Jorge Soler back to Kansas City.

While general manager Jed Hoyer made clear the ninth inning belongs to Davis, the pitcher himself isn't all that worried about how he's used. He began his career as a starter before transitioning to the bullpen, where he was an elite setup man before becoming a star closer in the past two seasons. With that in mind, Davis is open to anything.

"If I needed to pitch the eighth inning or the seventh inning or something, then that would be perfectly OK," Davis said in an interview on the Spiegel and Goff Show on 670 on Thursday. "The eighth inning is just as important as the next. There's a lot of emphasis on the ninth, and I think that's important in itself, but every inning, once it's started and you have the ball in your hand and you have the lead, I think every inning is pretty equal."

Former Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman -- who agreed to a five-year deal with the Yankees late Thursday -- expressed a preference to only work one inning and start each stint with a clean slate, though he willingly accepted a bigger workload in the postseason. Davis' preference isn't quite as rigid.

"I'll do anything I'm capable of," Davis said. "I'll do anything the manager needs me to do, especially in the postseason. It's all hands on deck. I think it's been pretty evident that you have to do whatever the team needs."

The 31-year-old Davis has been arguably the best reliever in baseball over the past three years, a stretch over which he's compiled a 1.18 ERA and allowed just three homers. For his career, Davis sports a 0.84 ERA in 32 1/3 postseason innings.

Davis played under Cubs manager Joe Maddon from 2009-'12 in Tampa Bay and also won the 2015 World Series with Cubs infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist in Kansas City, so he's already familiar with some faces in his new home.

"Joe is great," Davis said. "Joe makes life easy in the clubhouse, and that's something everything can agree on, to be blessed with a manager that easy and is so easy to talk to and understand."

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