Cardinals reliever Andrew Kittredge pitches during a game against the Marlins on Saturday, April 6, 2024, at Busch Stadium.
When it comes to the benefit of establishing clear, concise and consistent roles within a bullpen, right down to specific innings, who better to ask than a reliever who pitched in every inning during his All-Star summer?
“I think there is a huge benefit of getting guys in their role so you don’t have to get guys out of their roles,” said Andrew Kittredge, who appeared at least once in all nine regulation innings, four times in the 10th inning and even once in the 11th for Tampa Bay in 2021. “I think it kind of depends on the pitcher. So much of what you deal with in the ’pen can be anxiety, it can be nerves and it can be guys totally calm down there.
“For me, personally, I like the little bit of a surprise,” he continued. “But I’m also not upset knowing when I’m going to throw, what situation, what inning. It does benefit a lot of guys from a preparation standpoint. Maybe I’m the outlier.”
More likely, he’s a reason.
If there was a governing theme to how the Cardinals imagined their roster to start this season it was this: consistency. They wanted position players like Tommy Edman to have a consistent position in the field. They wanted hitters to have a consistent spot in the lineup. They wanted consistent innings from their rotation. Injuries have scuttled those best-laid plans. One place where sought-after consistency is surfacing, despite a few injuries, is in the bullpen. After several years of playing the matchups, the Cardinals are adopting a more traditional setup. Their roster — especially additions like Kittredge — make it possible.
Closer Ryan Helsley has the ninth.
Kittredge, JoJo Romero and Giovanny Gallegos take the seventh and eighth.
And they’re committed to it.
“Helsley can drive into that parking lot every day, walk into the clubhouse and know that if we have the lead in the ninth, he’s getting the baseball,” manager Oliver Marmol said this past week in his office. He had previously explained: “We always have the conversation on the position player side of showing up to the park and knowing where you’re hitting in the lineup. It’s very similar to that (with the) bullpen knowing: I’m the seventh-inning guy, eighth-inning guy based on the lane, I’m the closer (or) I can come in dirty in the sixth. I feel like the guys are getting to the point where they’re defining that, and we’re sticking to it.”
The early returns are Helsley’s four saves, the fifth-best strikeout rate per nine innings in the majors and a 3.74 ERA inflated by the league’s highest batting average for balls in play. That lurched upward to .347 with two infield singles off Kittredge in Tuesday’s win over the Phillies and three ground-ball singles off Andre Pallante in Wednesday’s loss.
The bigger goal is asserting an identity the relievers have been talking about since before spring.
“What we want it to be is just an aggressive bullpen,” Kittredge said. “I think a lot of the things that (pitching coach) Dusty (Blake) has talked about from a mindset going forward is just that — an aggressive mindset. I think that is more of what we’re building. I think if we have the same approach from our bullpen mentality that is what we’re preaching — attacking hitters. The stuff in this room is too good to not challenge guys. That’s the thing we’ve been hounding the most.”
Said Helsley: “Live and die in the zone. Make the other team beat us and not beat ourselves.”
Helsley referenced past Cardinals bullpens that he’s been in that struggled with walks, once leading the league in them during the first half of a season. This past season, on their way to 91 losses, the Cardinals bullpen blew 28 saves and misplaced more than 30 leads. Helsley described how the chatter in the bullpen this season has been the best way to not fall behind is to come out staying ahead. He said as a group, they’ve stressed “a mentality of getting ahead of guys right from the start, attacking from the get-go.”
To measure that, they’re using first-pitch strikes.
In 2023, the Cardinals pitching staff had the eighth-worst first-pitch-strike rate at 60.7%. The bullpen was about average at 61.1%. Through the first 13 games this season, the Cardinals bullpen has a first-pitch-strike rate of 67.7%. That ranks second in the majors to only this weekend’s opponent, the Arizona Diamondbacks (68.7%). As Cardinals relievers pitched four scoreless innings Tuesday to cinch a 3-0 shutout against the Phillies, they got a first-pitch strike on 11 of the 14 batters. Eight of those 11 struck out. Kittredge got a first-pitch strike on all four batters he faced Wednesday, and he leads the team with 90% first-pitch strikes.
“I think just putting an emphasis on that — on strike 1 — kind of gets you in that attack mode because ... that simplifies it,” Kittredge said. “You take away the nitpick-ness of anything. No, are you attacking him? Alright. They’ve given us that confidence, too, where you know if we get bit in that count, they’re not upset because that’s what they want us to do — they want us to be aggressive. I think that mentality plays. I would rather be the guy attacking than playing defense.”
Said Marmol: “Guys have weapons. The ones that work the best, throw the most.”
Part of the volatility of the bullpen is the churn of it — relievers in, relievers out, rookies in, journeymen out. The Cardinals had 15 different pitchers make at least 10 relief appearances for them in 2023. The carousel was caused by some trades that were caused by losing, and the carousel also contributed to the losing. It was difficult for the bullpen to create any cohesion, let alone identity. That was true even in some recent successful seasons, where Helsley would be targeted against the middle of the order — whenever that spot in the lineup came up in a close game. Leverage guided the choices, not linking relievers to specific innings. Getting Romero closing experience late in 2023 started how the Cardinals now finish games.
“Helsley was your piece with real firepower, so if you’re facing the meat, that was your best chance to keep the game there and then you figure out the ninth, and now there’s comfort knowing other guys can handle it,” Marmol said. He said earlier: “I think personnel allows you to create a philosophy. It’s hard to have a philosophy and not have the personnel to fit the philosophy.”
Part of the commitment to consistency in the bullpen reaches beyond the mound, too. The Cardinals are having injured relievers Keynan Middleton and Riley O’Brien remain in Ƶ for their rehab so they can be around their peers, be part of the identity and camaraderie the bullpen is building.
Helsley mentioned that part of the approach and concept behind the bullpen came from Tampa Bay, brought in by Kittredge. Acquired via trade this past winter, Kittredge has echoed Blake’s push for strike 1. They’ve all talked about the importance of different looks, like Tampa has, from the bullpen — Romero’s five pitches, Helsley’s heat, Kittredge’s lower arm angle.
That means Kittredge is the one of the best relievers to ask about the value of roles because by leading in first-strike rate and owning the seventh or eighth so Helsley can fill the ninth, he’s one who makes the approach possible.
“Maybe what it does most is it eliminates too much variance in too many guys’ roles,” Kittredge said. “You see when it starts working, everybody feeds off of that, and that is what we’re looking for, right? You definitely want Ryan in the ninth. But if we can’t get him the lead in the ninth, then there’s no use having him there.”
Nootbaar activated; Contreras ready
The Cardinals activated outfielder Lars Nootbaar from the 10-day injured list as expected Thursday so that he could be in the lineup when the Cardinals begin a weekend series against Arizona. Nootbaar fractured two ribs midway through spring training, and he has spent the past week regaining his timing and feel for the strike zone at the plate through a rehab assignment.
To make room on the roster for Nootbaar, the Cardinals optioned catcher Pedro Pages. That suggests the Cardinals believe Willson Contreras’ bone bruise in his left hand has healed enough for him to catch comfortably.
