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

1. Tyler Lyons

All of the sudden, Tyler Lyons has transitioned from a young pitching prospect into a middling 28-year-old vet who’s future as a big-league starter is beginning to look bleak. You have to love the guy for his attitude, he would probably go out and throw 1o innings of mop-up baseball if you asked him to.

Lyons can be a quality gap-filler in long-relief and spot-start opportunities, but is there a way to give him a chance to take on some higher leverage situations?

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That left-handed specialist job seems to be his best shot, although I’m not sold on his ability to handle impact-bat lefties in pressure cooker at-bats where the Cardinals must have an out.

Against left-handed bats in 2016, Lyons was anything but dominant. His opponent batting average of .232 against lefties wasn’t bad, but not nearly as dominant as you would want in a guy that would face left-handers exclusively with the game on the line.

His opponent on base percentage of .317 against lefties is even more cause for concern. He issued six walks in 63 plate appearances against lefties in 2015 while hitting one of them. He allowed three home runs to left-handed batters, and his 2.67 K/9 rate against lefties is nearly half of the 4.89 K/p he posted against right-handed batters in 2015.

Lyons seems destined to the spot-start/long-relief role moving forward barring a jump in velocity, the development of a put away secondary pitch, or a mechanical change (i.e. dropping his arm slot) to make him more difficult on lefties.

That isn’t to say that re-directing his focus to becoming dominant against lefties couldn’t get him over the hump, just that it doesn’t seem likely based on his numbers of the past and his lack of put away stuff.

Next: The Prospect

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.