I wasn’t able to talk much about the pitching in the previews, so consider this the pitching preview: both starting and relieving edition.
Here’s a weird bit of trivia for you. At this time last year, with spring training ending and Opening Day approaching, the only member of this year’s starting rotation who was also in the starting rotation on Opening Day last year… is Miles Mikolas. This is especially strange when you consider that all five starters were Cardinals last year and with the exception of two weeks, all five were in the major leagues all of last year. How often does that happen?
There’s good reasons for them all. Sonny Gray started the year injured. Erick Fedde was obviously not in the Cardinal organization until the trading deadline. And both Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore broke camp as relief pitchers. Liberatore more or less stayed a relief pitcher all year except for some spot starts and Pallante spent about two and half weeks building himself up as a starting pitcher in the minors. (Last year’s starting 5: Mikolas, Gibson, Lynn, Matz, and Thompson)
Despite that, the rotation still had the feeling of same old, same old – that is until Matthew Liberatore was announced as a starter. He treated spring training as if he would be a starter – because in his words, it’s easier to work your way from 5 innings to 1 than the reverse. He did not particularly care about his role he had so long as he had a role.
“When I get out there, there’s no thought about what role I’m in or what inning is or who I’m facing, I want to get outs and I want to compete,” Liberatore said. “I’m going to do that until the ball is ripped out of my hand. I never really want to come out of the game. Whether or not I get the opportunity to do that from the first pitch of the game or the 60th pitch of the game, it doesn’t really matter to me. I just love being out there.”
Liberatore was working on improving two different pitches both in the offseason and in spring training. And I suppose both were a success on some level, since he was handed the keys to a spot in the rotation.
“Been putting a heavy emphasis for sure on making sure I got that cutter dialed in,” Liberatore said. “That was kind of a new weapon for me that happened two weeks before Opening Day last year. It was definitely effective for me last year, but making sure that’s gonna be nice and sharp. Also toying around with different grips on changeup, seeing if I can get something that has some little more depth to it or moves a little more arm-side.”
The cutter is vital to Liberatore’s success as a starting pitcher. He can function well enough in relief without it, with a priority focused on facing left-handed batters, but you can’t really avoid facing right-handed batters when starting.
“(The cutter) gave me an easier avenue to get in on right-handed hitters and if I was able to get it in there, they had to respect that part of the plate,” Liberatore said. “So it gave me back the outer half against righties.”
Another pitcher who is trying to keep his cutter consistent and effective is Michael McGreevy. He struggled with his consistency on the pitch throughout most of last season.
“Refining the cutter is always a huge part of it for how much we struggled with it this year until maybe the last month of the season,” McGreevy said. “Location-wise, consistency-wise. I’ve been focusing more on my body this offseason.”
And yes, I know McGreevy isn’t a part of the Opening Day rotation, but we’ll see him soon enough. McGreevy had a bit of a midseason transformation last year, which was more than just his on-field results. He also took better care of his body.
“That’s the stuff I think people kind of forget,” McGreevy said. “‘Oh there’s just working out hard, they’re just lifting heavy weights, they’re playing the games.’ No it’s about dieting, sleeping right, recovering the right way. Seeing the muscle mass numbers increase, and the fat mass numbers decrease is something that will help me in the long run.”
His offseason plan involved eating more protein, so he had a steak dinner most nights. Oh the horror. Taking care of what he puts into his body will help lead him to become the innings eater he wants to be.
“My goal is always to make every start, take the ball every fifth day,” McGreevy said. “The cool goal of maybe 200 innings a year. The more innings I throw, puts the team in a better position to win.”
There’s no real exciting new pitch storyline this spring training from the members of the starting rotation. Andre Pallante talked about maybe adding a changeup at Winter Warmup, but also said that it was important to get to your baseline first and then maybe expand. I think it took him all spring to get to his baseline.
Pallante inadvertently provided a possible explanation for why he struggled a bit this spring training. Because you don’t really get deep into games in spring.
“That’s the reason I think I was a better starter than reliever,” Pallante said. “It’s because I get better deeper into games. I command my pitches better. My velocity sometimes goes up throughout the game.”
I know i’m putting a bit of a rosy spin on it, but Pallante’s best stuff was seen in his last game when he lasted five innings. He also struck out 5 batters, which was over half the amount of strikeouts he had all spring. If you’re wondering why Pallante appears to be a unicorn who can pitch better when starting than relieving, he has an answer.
“A big part of it is the way my stuff plays I think,” Pallante said. “For me, it was almost night and day. I have two pitches that work against lefties and I have two pitches that work really well against righties. I can use them (all) against lefties and righties, but they’re not great. I think the way I threw, it was more consistent with a guy that has more pitches who has time to work on and keep them up to speed.”
With Mikolas absent from Winter Warmup and Gray talking about everything but his pitching in his presser, that leaves Erick Fedde. His goal is to get more consistency with his changeup, which is at its best when its induced vertical is under 2 inches. According to Fedde, he allowed one hit when he managed that.
“I guess my personal goal – talked with Dusty about it – is just getting my changeup consistency,” Fedde said. “It was something I felt that was something that late in the year was not at its best.”
And hey if you want a good narrative, Fedde has a good one that explains his downtick in performance a bit. When you join a new team, it means finding a new relationship with your catchers. Instantly gelling is not automatic, not to mention the pressure of joining a new team.
“When I first got here, it was about getting to know guys, especially my pitching style and getting used to the catchers,” Fedde said. “I think towards that last month of the season, I felt we really got connected and my pitching was even better.”
And when we first see Fedde pitch, he’ll have had a whole spring training with the two catchers, so hopefully we see something similar to what he did in September and not in August.
Bullpen
The biggest news of the Cardinals offseason was signing Phil Maton. I’m joking. The biggest news was the inaction during the offseason, something that even kind of surprised Ryan Helsley.
“I honestly thought I wasn’t going to come back this year,” Helsley said. “Super excited and thrilled to be back and keep wearing this uniform. Grew up a fan of the Cardinals and gotten to play with some pretty incredible teammates along the way.” He later continued his point, “I think most clubs would probably ship me out, but I’m thankful for them wanting to keep me here.”
Inside the bullpen, the departure of Andrew Kittredge is I think a bigger deal than what the numbers or fans would say. And by that I mean, the players in the bullpen certainly think he was a big loss. He was mentioned by most relievers, and most of the time there wasn’t a question that included the words Andrew Kittredge.
“Kitt was an incredible teammate, we would have loved to have him back, but I obviously get it from the business side of things,” Helsley said. “He’s a great human and a great friend and obviously a great competitor.”
Riley O’Brien concurs. Due to time constraints, he was unfortunately in the same presser as Jordan Walker, which means for about a 20 minute interview, he was asked four questions total. But he was also a reliever who mentioned Kittredge by name without being prompted.
“I was able to learn a bunch last year from the guys with being hurt. During the games, being in the bullpen, I’m not focusing on myself as much and I was able to observe and see the process the guys go through and how they get ready,” O’Brien said. “Kittredge was a big guy to lean on, especially helping through the injury and stuff.”
Despite O’Brien’s struggles last season, when Helsley was asked who might take the high leverage spots to replace Kittredge, he mentioned O’Brien by name. He also named Ryan Fernandez, who was unfortunately not available at Winter Warmup.
“(Fernandez) pitched great as a rookie and he’ll have a chance to take that role,” Helsley said. “O’Brien didn’t pitch great, but I think he’s got the stuff to really fill in that role and be a leverage guy for us.”
When I first conceived this article, I had a whole section planned for Liberatore. And then he was announced in the rotation. With Maton signed recently and JoJo Romero also not at Winter Warmup, that’s about all I can add to the relievers replacing Kittredge in a high leverage role.
A candidate to maybe surprise and take some high leverage spots was a shuttle guy last year. Chris Roycroft, like most pitchers entering spring training, had a specific pitch he was targeting to improve.
“I think my slider was my worst performing pitch,” Roycroft said. “If i hadn’t thrown my slider, I would have probably done a lot better. Just rearranging what I want to do with it, kind of make it shorter, smaller break, throw it a little harder. Those are the things I’m searching for.”
If you want a little insight into the life of a shuttle reliever, it takes some mental fortitude. Roycroft says it was the biggest thing he had to adjust to.
“I was fully bought in on ‘It’s out of my control, don’t worry about it,’ Roycroft said “I think just learning that was very helpful to control my emotions.”
When I asked Kyle Leahy about what it’s like to go up and down all season, the generally reserved and quiet Leahy had an insightful response.
“It’s tough,” Leahy said. “As fans don’t really see like every time you get sent down, it’s packing up your entire life and moving to an apartment to a different city to a different state. It seems like “oh yeah you’re getting sent down, you’ll be back or hopefully, you never know.’ Personally I think I did a decent job handling it every time I went down. My mindset was I’m not going to sulk, that’s not going to get you anywhere, I have just to get so much better at every thing I do so that I am contributing at such a high level that I can’t get sent down.”
I will say this. If Leahy has a 31 K% and 2.4 BB% in the regular season (his numbers in spring training), he won’t have to worry about getting sent down. In fact, to carry it back to the beginning of this section, we’ll probably see him replacing Kittredge.
