Is pitching in relief changing Carlos Martinez for the better?
St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt thinks so. He sees a more veteran approach in Martinez’s last seven appearances, the sum total of the right-hander’s work since returning from his latest shoulder injury and joining the bullpen.
On Wednesday in Washington, Shildt was answering a question about what appeared to be a decline in Martinez’s arm strength, a potentially worrisome development given the succession of injuries to his right shoulder area this season. The maximum velocity of his two most powerful pitches, his sinker and his four-seam fastball, had been down 3-4 mph compared with previous months, surprising since most starting pitchers see a spike in velocity when they are converted to relief.
Should we be talking about this? Feels like we should be talking about this. #STLCards (H/T @markasaxon) pic.twitter.com/xS39ny6hcW
— Kevin Wheeler Show (@WheelerShow101) September 5, 2018
Shildt reasoned that the decline in velocity reflected Martinez’s growth as a pitcher. He thinks Martinez can still throw that hard, but does so only when he needs to, in situations with men on base and menacing hitters at the plate.
About five hours later, Martinez entered the game in the eighth inning and stayed in to finish off the ninth and pick up his first save in four years. Along the way, he threw a 98.2-mph four-seamer and a 96.2-mph sinker, and he struck out four of the eight men he faced, including Nats slugger Bryce Harper. In other words, he looked like the old Carlos Martinez.
“Earlier there was a question about his velocity. I don’t hear those any more,” Shildt said.
Martinez seemed to rise to the occasion in saving his first game since 2014, when he was a 22-year-old rookie. He admitted the excitement of the assignment helped him rev up the delivery of his fastballs.
“Sometimes I need to throw hard and I need to throw my best pitch,” Martinez said. “That was the eighth and ninth innings. I was ready for everything.”
Tonight was Carlos Martínez's first save since September 28, 2014. 🌊 pic.twitter.com/bNnAI6Qqfq
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 6, 2018
Martinez said he feels great, though that’s a fairly standard response from pitchers at this time of year. Very few of them actually feel great after the abuse their arms have taken all season, but they also don’t want to cast any doubt on their ability to help a team fighting for a playoff spot. Presuming he’s healthy, Martinez will return to the Cardinals’ rotation next season, but for now, he looks like the best in-house candidate to serve as the Cardinals’ closer.
And he will. Kind of.
Now that Bud Norris has been removed from the traditional closer role, Shildt is taking advantage of an opportunity. He wants to use his best relievers to pitch to the other team’s best hitters whenever that happens, without being bound by the save rule.
He wants to evolve beyond the traditional, one-inning closer model that Tony La Russa invented.
So Martinez got six outs (and threw 40 pitches) even though that means he probably won’t be available to pitch again until Saturday. The Cardinals won’t exactly have any candidates for the Reliever of the Year Award this season, but if Shildt pulls the right levers late in these final 22 games, they could have the arms to get to October baseball.
“So who’s fresh and who’s got the best matchup based on the situation, I think that’s what you’ll see,” Shildt said. “You want straightforward answers, and I just can’t give them to you. I wish I could tell you, but it’s a flexible thing.”
Norris’ fall from grace happened suddenly – he blew games Sunday and Monday by allowing five runs on four hits, four walks and three home runs – but it had been foretold for a while. As colleague Bernie Miklasz pointed out in this week’s Redbird Reset, Norris’ peripheral numbers were worrisome in the weeks leading up to those appearances. From Aug. 1 to Sunday, Norris’ strikeout rate (20.4 percent) was down and his walk rate (13.4 percent) up considerably from earlier in the season (31 percent and 4.5 percent). Another colleague at The Athletic, Joe Schwarz, wrote that Norris’ poor fastball command finally caught up to him.
Bud Norris allowed three homers in two games earlier this week, including two in the 10th inning Sunday vs. the Reds. (Photo by Jeff Roberson/AP Photo)
But the Cardinals still need Norris because he can handle the ninth on the days Martinez can’t pitch, allowing Shildt to use more effective pitchers such as Jordan Hicks or Daniel Hudson to face the other team’s best hitters in an earlier inning.
Martinez’s effectiveness and health are the keys to the whole plan. The Cardinals’ bullpen has been showing signs of strain since August ended, with a 5.79 ERA this month, but Martinez has bucked the trend. He is getting strikeouts and, so far, hasn’t walked many batters.
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In his 8 1/3 innings of relief, Martinez has allowed three hits (all singles), walked four batters and given up just one run. Opposing hitters have a .423 OPS against him.
But can the Cardinals count on it to last? He’s pitching in relief because the team feared a return to the rotation would be too strenuous for his right shoulder. He has been on the 10-day disabled list three times this season, with a right lat strain, a right oblique strain and an inflamed shoulder. The pattern is worrisome and, at the least, should prompt the Cardinals to keep a close eye on his workload.
After Martinez worked a scoreless eighth Wednesday, pitching coach Mike Maddux asked him if he felt good enough to finish the game.
“I said, ‘Yes, I’m focused and I’m ready,’” Martinez said.
That’s how the Cardinals will piece together the late innings in upcoming games. It won’t be just day to day, it will be pitch by pitch at times. It might not be tidy or easy to grasp, but it’s the best they can do as they try to keep the wheels from falling off at the most awkward of times.
(Top photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
