St. Louis Cardinals: The next left-handed specialist

The St. Louis Cardinals figure to see a three-man race for the second left-handed relief role behind Kevin Siegrist in the St. Louis Bullpen.

I know, Cardinal fans. You are all as distraught as I am that the St. Louis Cardinals have moved on from Randy Choate in the left-handed specialist role. How will the Cardinals ever replace the 82 mile-an-hour chucking southpaw who baffled opposing left-handers with his funky side-armed sling of a delivery? How will the bullpen piece itself back together?

All sarcasm aside, no, the left-handed specialist isn’t the most glamorous job in sports. It is easy to make fun of the guy that get’s paid to throw to one batter a night. Still, the fact of the matter is that the lefty specialist does face high leverage situations, and he can be the difference between wins and losses.

The Cardinals have actually had a pretty good string of southpaw slingers roll through St. Louis, all kicked off with the the man, the myth, Mr. Steve Kline. I don’t know about everyone else, but that guy is still one of my all-time favorite Cardinals. He perfectly epitomized his role, and he loved the St. Louis Cardinals and the opportunity to pitch in front of Cardinal fans.

Yes, I know Kline wasn’t a lefty specialist in the true sense of the position considering the amount of right-handed batters he faced. He was much more of the Kevin Siegrist mold in terms of his usage. But it just wouldn’t be right to publish an article about left-handed bullpen guys in St. Louis without mention of Kliner in there some where.

Any who… the point I was trying to make before going off on that tangent is that the lefty specialist role is an important one. Guys like Kline, Trever Miller, Mark Rzepcynski, and most recently Randy Choate have all had success in that role and they have contributed to winning baseball games in St. Louis.

The next Cardinal left-handed specialist figures to be a younger guy with more life on his fastball and sharpness to his secondary pitches. That is not a shot at any of the guys that came before, just the reality of the situation. I see three guys that could slide into that role, and I will present their cases for the job throughout this article.

Next: The long man

2. Marco Gonzales

There is still a lot to be learned about the now 23-year-old former first round draft pick from the University of Gonzaga. Marco Gonzales burst onto the scene in the 2014 playoffs, less than a calendar year removed from winning the John Olerud Award (best college two-way player) for his efforts as a first baseman and staff Ace with the Bulldogs.

Gonzales picked up two wins in relief during the 2014 NLDS, showing off his promising command and makeup that John Mozeliak fell in love with when he took him 19th overall in 2013.

Arm troubles blew up Marco’s 2015 campaign as he was expected to compete for a fifth spot in the rotation or a long-relief/spot start role. Coming back in 2016, Gonzales is looking to bounce back and have an impact with the big club, and he says that he won’t confine himself to any particular role.

Many would say that it is way too early to give up on Gonzales as a starter, and I would have to agree. There isn’t anywhere near a large enough sample size to determine whether or not Gonzales could be successful as a big league starter.

Gonzales’ numbers against lefties were good in 2014, albeit with just 32 plate appearances to go off of. Lefties slashed just .143/.219/.179 against Gonzales in those at-bats. He did not surrender a long ball and he did have a 2.5 K/walk ratio.

Again, though, Gonzales’ changeup has the potential to be devastating against right-handed batters, and his makeup really lends itself to projecting out as a starting pitcher. There are similarities across the board between Gonzales and Jaime Garcia, making bullpen relegation an unlikely scenario.

The question to be asked is what the nature of Gonzales’ arm problems might be. If it was overuse-type issue, meaning that perhaps his arm couldn’t handle starting pitcher innings, would the bullpen be a better fit? In that scenario, would Gonzales be able to handle pitching back-to-back games or three days in a row?

We will find out a lot about Gonzales this spring and into the season, but a lefty-specialist role doesn’t seem particularly likely.

Next: The next LOOGY

3. Dean Kiekhefer

Dean Kiekhefer (26) was drafted in the 37th round of the 2007 draft by the Indians, and has spent time in Memphis the past couple of seasons. He has posted sub-3.00 ERA’s in both 2014 and 2015 over a combined 116 1/3 innings pitched with the Redbirds.

Kiekhefer is said to have a knockout slider that he works off of his two-seam fastball that runs to the left side of the plate. He does not over power guys, and his lack of an established changeup makes him a pure LOOGY guy at the big league level.

Kiekhefer struck out just 37 batters in 59 2/3 innings last season, but the fact that he only walked seven — good for a 5.29 strikeout-to-walk ratio — over his 50 appearances makes him intriguing as a LOOGY prospect.

“I’m tremendously impressed with Kiekhefer so far. I don’t think he’s walked a hitter and has lots of swing and miss in his pitches. He’s another fine pitching prospect.”-Bernie Pleskoff, MLB.com

As mentioned in our breakdown of Kiekhefer’s profile as a left-handed prospect, praise for his stuff and the prospects of him having an impact at the Major League level are coming from all directions.

When asked about Kiekhefer on scout.com, Bernie Pleskoff of mlb.com said “I’m tremendously impressed with Kiekhefer so far. I don’t think he’s walked a hitter and has lots of swing and miss in his pitches. He’s another fine pitching prospect.” 

Kiekhefer’s .267/.290/.311 opposing slash line against lefties in 2015 doesn’t scream dominance, but it does illustrate two points. Kiekhefer might give up a hit to a lefty, but he most certainly isn’t going to give in and walk him. When he does give up a hit, it isn’t going to be for extra bases. Walks and extra base hits are devastating to LOOGY pitchers, and Kiekhefer doesn’t give up any of either.

Should Kiekhefer have success this spring in a LOOGY role, he will undoubtedly be the candidate most fit for the specialist position. He has the most experience in that type of role, and his pitching repertoire and makeup seem best fit for first shot at the job.

Next: Carlos Martinez key cog in Cardinals rotation

The bottom line is that baseball is a results driven business, though. Should Kiekhefer struggle in the role, look for St. Louis to consider one of it’s other young left-handers to lock down the LOOGY job in the Cardinal bullpen.