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?

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• Cardinals Rumors: 3 pros and cons of signing Carlos Rodon
• Cardinals: Here is Willson Contreras’ first message for St. Louis fans
• How do the St. Louis Cardinals stack up with Willson Contreras?
• Cardinals: The insane asking price the Athletics had for Sean Murphy
• St. Louis Cardinals: Ask me anything with Josh Jacobs – 12/8

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

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