Ryan Helsley should step up big for St Louis Cardinals

With Jordan Hicks out of for an indeterminable amount of time, it will be interesting to see who steps up for the St. Louis Cardinals in the meantime.

The St. Louis Cardinals placed Jordan Hicks on the 10-day injured list on May 4 after leaving an outing over the weekend in Pittsburgh with an apparent injury in his right arm that caused him to flex and grimace in pain.

The team said Hicks is experiencing inflammation in the right elbow, but it is not believed to be connected to a Tommy John surgery in 2019. While the team is seeking a second opinion of what may be ailing Hicks, they are preparing for him to be away from the team for an extended period of time.

Thankfully, the starting rotation has been going longer into games. As a result, having a long list of available relievers hasn’t been as crucial as in years past.

Alex Reyes has taken on the closing role very nicely. Hicks had been the setup man for Reyes, but we are likely to see an assortment of pitchers as needed for the role. Giovanny Gallegos has been an efficient option. With the exception of a disastrous game against the Phillies on April 28, Genesis Cabrera has been a good bullpen arm. Tyler Webb and Kodi Whitley have been good in their roles for the pen as well.

Ryan Helsley has been a role player too, but it seems his role could become more important in the coming days and weeks as the team tries to figure things out with Hicks and the pen.

So far, Helsley is 2-0 with one hold in 13 games this season, with 13 strikeouts and an ERA of 4.15. He has faced a total of 56 hitters and given up 12 hits, seven walks and six earned runs. Not lights out by any means. But there is some potential.

Helsley relies on a four-seam fastball, a cutter, curveball and a change-up. His four-seam and cutter appear to be the most effective pitches for him.

Per Baseball Savant, he averages 96.6 mph on his four-seam and has 78% active spin. This, according to MLB.com, is the rate of spin that contributes to pitch movement. In 2020, he averaged 96.9 mph with a 77% active spin. Granted, it’s a slight improvement and last season was short.  This season he’s given up the most hits, eight, with this pitch. But he’s also struck out six.

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Helsley uses his changeup against lefties, striking out one. He gets excellent movement on this pitch with 96% active spin. He has only thrown the pitch 13 times this season. As he gets more comfortable with the pitch, it will be interesting to see if he can use this to really throw off the hitter and get some strikeouts this way, especially against lefties.

He’s thrown his curveball 19 times at 87 mph and a 66% active spin. This is just a nice pitch to have in his arsenal.

Helsley’s cutter averages 87.5 mph and he has struck out seven batters with the pitch, which has a 35% active spin. It will be really interesting to see him work on this pitch as the active spin doesn’t reflect how good a pitch it has been for him. The more he improves on this pitch the better his active spin and strikeouts could be for his cutter. It would be great to see him improve on this as a putaway pitch against righties.

At 26, Helsley has a lot of potential. With a good pitch variety and continued improvement, the possibilities for Helsley with the Cardinals could be pretty interesting moving forward. It should be fun to watch the young man.