While the Cardinals looked for the right time to debut Ryan Fernandez, the rookie right-hander spent day after day, as each game passed without him throwing a pitch, getting in the right mindset for his first appearance in the majors.
When that right time never came but the only time did, he was ready.
“It kind of built up to when I do get my chance, I’m going to make sure I take advantage of it — that type of thing,” Fernandez said. “It’s the big leagues. Whenever it happens, it’s the biggest performance of my life.”
In the opening days of the regular season, the Cardinals sought an entry-level spot to use one of their new-addition relievers. A cozy lead would have been preferred; a mop-up inning would have been used. As the wait lasted a series and neared a week, the Cardinals got in a bind where they could no longer be choosy. The spot chose Fernandez: He was available. Into the eighth inning at San Diego he entered with the Cardinals down by a run, a game within reach.
The biggest performance of his life.
Fernandez allowed a hit and a walk and struck out the other three batters he faced to hold the one-run deficit he inherited. It was not the ideal situation, but it yielded an even better outcome.
“It was like, ‘It’s yours, buddy,’” manager Oliver Marmol recalled. “The game doesn’t always give you the opportunity you want. It puts you in a spot where it’s time for you to do something. It’s a benefit to the player because he handled it well, and that leads to confidence when put into those moments, and it’s a benefit to the team because he handled it well, and that leads to confidence using him in those moments.”
Outside the spotlight the Cardinals placed on their rotation for the season and beyond the flares of concern set off by the offense, the bullpen has become the team’s steadiest beacon. The Cardinals head to Queens for a three-game series with a 3.77 bullpen ERA that is slightly warped by a long-relief appearance this past week in the 14-1 loss. Subtract that outing and the Cardinals’ bullpen ERA would be 3.13, low enough for third in the National League and just behind this weekend’s opponents, the strikeout-oriented New York Mets relief corps. The Cardinals are getting there.
The Cardinals are the only bullpen in the NL to rank in the majors’ top five for strikeout rate (26.2%) and bottom five for walk rate (8.1%). The lead the majors with the highest ground-ball rate of any relief group at 53.6%. The Cardinals aimed to beef up their bullpen for more strikeouts, and five of the relievers who have spent the entire season so far in the bullpen have strikeout rates greater than the team rate, which ranks fifth in MLB. The second-best strikeout rate in the bullpen, at 31.6%, belongs to Fernandez.
The last player on the Cardinals’ opening day roster to appear in a game, Fernandez is emerging as a welcome part of that bullpen — a chase reliever.
The Cardinals did not score a run before the sixth inning of either game they won against Arizona, and yet they took two of three because of a bullpen that, in the victories, did not allow a run. Fernandez pitched a pivotal inning in the first game of the series with the Cardinals trailing by three runs. By holding the Diamondbacks scoreless in the sixth inning, he bought time for the offense to rally for a win and set up the Cardinals’ late-inning relievers to be available later in that game and that series.
“Keep it there, allow you to tie it and now you’re facing our back-end guys,” Marmol said. “When you have a good bullpen, it allows you to use guys in a game like that who can keep it there. That was key to being able to get to JoJo (Romero) and Andrew (Kittredge). It’s him being able to keep it there that gives you a shot.”
Fernandez, 25, relieved starter Lance Lynn on Monday for the sixth inning. Awaiting him was the 3-0 deficit and the top of the D-Backs order. Fernandez struck out the first two batters he faced, speeding an elevated 94.4 mph sinker past Ketel Marte before getting a pop-up from reigning Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll. It was Fernandez’s seventh appearance of the season and seventh time pitching with the Cardinals trailing.
The comeback meant it was his first performance in a win.
Biggest of his life?
“I helped the team come back and get a walk-off win,” Fernandez said. “So, probably, yeah.”
A 23rd-round pick by Boston in the 2018 MLB draft, Fernandez took his most significant stride toward the majors ahead of the 2022 season. It just ultimately wouldn’t be with the Red Sox. That offseason, Fernandez and a cousin kept each other honest by going to the gym and adding strength. Fernandez was drafted at around 170 pounds, and that weight had not been updated as he climbed the Sox system to Class A. Fernandez knew he needed strength to advance. He added size, reporting to spring training at 195 pounds.
That was not the number that caught his eye.
In his first live batting practice session, his fastball clocked 97 mph for the first time.
“I was like, ‘Whoa,’” he said. “This could be a crazy year.”
He reached 98 mph and 99 mph later in the season.
Fernandez spent part of that season as closer and reached Class AA. He got 26 games at Class AAA in 2023, but his ERA swelled to 6.16 and while the power played it also sometimes left the ballpark. He allowed seven home runs in 30 2/3 innings to offset 35 strikeouts. The Sox left Fernandez unprotected ahead of the Rule 5 draft, and the Cardinals selected him, knowing it would take a spot on their active roster all season to retain him. The Rule 5 implication resonated with Fernandez.
“You get that Rule 5 call and you’re like, OK, this is awesome,” Fernandez said. “They believe I can pitch in the big leagues right now.”
With a solid spring and a power-slider pitch profile the Cardinals craved, Fernandez earned a spot in the opening day bullpen. Finding him a spot in a game became the challenge. At one point, as the season shifted from the opening four games at Dodger Stadium to three games at the Padres’ Petco Park, Marmol had an eight-word answer about when and how the right-handed rookie might appear in a game: “We need to get him in a game.” The Cardinals couldn’t script it, so the circumstance eventually did.
During the season’s first week, Fernandez had been eyeing his peers and their routines, borrowing from them, adapting them and also waiting for the phone to ring with his name.
When that call came and he warmed up, the Cardinals rallied.
A two-run game became a one-run game became his game.
“Oh yeah, that’s probably why my mood change going into that game was so intense,” Fernandez said. “I had that mentality building up in my head on how I needed to be going into my first outing. I was very calm, just chilling in the bullpen, knowing eventually I was going to get my chance. Then when my name came, I kind of had this (attack) you mentality going on. It was very intense. You can see it in the pictures of me when I came into the dugout. I kind of look like I was (ticked) off. I wasn’t. I was having the greatest time ever.”
Stationed around a double and an intentional walk, Fernandez struck out three batters, each on a different pitch. His first big league strikeout came on a called strike 3 cutter. He dropped a 95.8 mph fastball under a bat for his second and veered an 87 mph slider for the finish. His debut with a scoreless inning as a chase reliever gave the Cardinals a chance to rally even though they did not.
“I’m glad it happened the way it did,” said Fernandez, who has as many strikeouts (12) as he has allowed base runners (12) in nine innings this season. “Having that situation there and showing that I can perform in that close of a game has helped Oli have confidence in me and put me in more spots like that. I kept it right there. I know I can go in there and shut the game down.”
When he left the sixth inning Monday, the score exactly as he inherited it, Fernandez stopped before ducking down into the clubhouse for arm care. The Cardinals lineup stirred. So he stayed in the dugout watching all the way until Nolan Gorman’s walk-off won it. Fernandez did not qualify for a hold, a save or the win. There will be no shorthand by his name in that box score, but his inning was key to the victory — and there will be more to follow.
“It may be the end of the game one day,” Fernandez said. “It could be the middle of the game like (against Arizona). They’re going to put me in there any time I can help.”
And the assignment will be the biggest of his life.
Yet.