Since firing Mike Matheny on July 14, the Cardinals have the National League's best record at 16-9. They've won five straight games and nine of their last 11 games to climb to within 2 1/2 games of the second wild-card spot. With seven weeks to go in the regular season, that's not the worst place to be.
The bullpen has been an issue for St. Louis pretty much all season -- their relievers rank 20th in ERA (4.24) and 22nd in WAR (1.7) -- with only closer Bud Norris and the heavily worked Jordan Hicks proving to be consistently reliable. The club remade their relief crew recently by cutting ties with Greg Holland and promoting prospect Dakota Hudson, among other moves.
On Monday, interim manager Mike Shildt announced the Cardinals have more relief help on the way. Carlos Martinez is moving to the bullpen for the remainder of the season. He's working his way back from a shoulder injury and the team prefers to bring him back as a reliever now rather than wait until he gets stretched out enough to start. Martinez will return to the rotation in 2019.
Shildt confirms that Martínez’s bullpen assignment will last for the rest of the year. He’ll go into spring training prepping as a starter. Shildt said that to get him to the point where he was built up to start and be effective made this make more sense. #stlcards
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) August 13, 2018
The 26-year-old Martinez originally broke into the big leagues as a reliever back in 2013 and 2014. In 72 career relief appearances, he has a 3.89 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 85 2/3 inning, though keep in mind Martinez compiled those stats a long time ago. He was essentially a rookie. Now he's a savvy veteran with a better idea of how to get outs at the MLB level.
At the moment, Shildt's bullpen looks like this:
- Closer: Bud Norris
- Setup: Jordan Hicks, Dakota Hudson
- Middle: Mike Mayers, Chasen Shreve, Tyler Webb
- Long: Daniel Poncedeleon
Martinez will throw a 30-pitch bullpen session on Monday and then be activated off the disabled list sometime later this week. Once he gets settled back in, it shouldn't be long until Martinez assumes a high-leverage role and lightens the load on Hicks, who is on pace for 76 appearances and 83 innings.
As for the starting rotation, the Cardinals are deep in starters and can afford to move Martinez into the bullpen. Their rotation depth chart looks like this:
- Miles Mikolas
- Michael Wacha (on disabled list with oblique injury)
- Jack Flaherty
- Luke Weaver
- Tyson Ross
- Austin Gomber
- John Gant
Prior to this current shoulder injury, Martinez made 18 starts and pitched to a 3.41 ERA (116 ERA+) with 98 strikeouts in 110 1/3 innings. His velocity wavered at times and Martinez admitted he held back a bit because he was worried about reaggravating prior injuries.
