Bats Preview: Pitchers and Catchers
*The article predicts the Louisville Bats’ pitchers and catchers for Opening Day based on the spring training information provided to us by the Cincinnati Reds’ beat writers through manager Bryan Price.
Rotation
Due to the lack of stability regarding the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching staff, the Louisville Bats enter the 2017 season with plenty of uncertainty surrounding their rotation.
It appeared the Reds would need to fill only one spot in the rotation after signing veteran Scott Feldman to a one-year deal in the offseason, but Homer Bailey’s unexpected elbow surgery one week prior to pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training altered that perception.
The Reds will now be forced to choose two pitchers who spent the majority of last season at Triple-A to occupy those vacancies, depleting the Bats’ starting pitching staff even further. The top candidates to pitch in the back end of Cincinnati’s rotation include Robert Stephenson, Amir Garrett, Cody Reed, and Tim Adleman.
If Stephenson and Garrett, the two best pitching prospects in the Reds’ farm system, pitch halfway decent in spring training, then those guys figure to have the upper hand on the competition unless someone else has overwhelming success leading up to Opening Day. That would mean Reed, barring catastrophic results in spring training, likely joins the Reds’ bullpen to give the club another southpaw alongside Tony Cingrani.
If that were the case, Adleman would begin the season at Louisville and help anchor the Bats’ rotation. Adleman pitched well at Triple-A last year before ultimately getting promoted to the big league club, going 3–1 with a 2.38 ERA in 10 starts with the Bats.
Fellow right-handers Rookie Davis, Sal Romano, Jackson Stephens, and Nick Travieso, who all pitched predominantly at Double-A Pensacola a year ago, will likely fill out the rest of the rotation.
Acquired in the Aroldis Chapman trade back in 2015, Davis impressed in his first season in the Reds’ organization. He went 10–3 in 19 starts while recording a 2.94 ERA and 1.16 WHIP with Pensacola. Davis was promoted to Triple-A Louisville towards the end of the year, but struggled in a small sample size with the Bats.
Davis isn’t the only one who had success at Double-A last year. Romano enjoyed a breakout season with the Blue Wahoos, registering a 3.52 ERA in a career-high 156 innings pitched. The 6-foot-5 hurler generated an ample amount of whiffs, as he ranked second in the Southern League in strikeouts with 144, while his 22 percent strikeout rate was the highest of his professional career. Romano has the type of repertoire that could force the Reds’ hand at some point in 2017.
Stephens exploded onto the scene last year with Pensacola, as he was named a Southern League All-Star and a MiLB.com Organization All-Star. Like Romano, Stephens experienced career-highs in innings pitched (151.1) and strikeout rate (20.5 percent) in 2016. He also limited opponents to a career-best .254 batting average and allowed the fewest home runs of any member of the Blue Wahoos’ rotation.
Travieso’s success at the Single-A level throughout his brief career failed to cross over to Double-A in 2016. The former first round pick uncharacteristically struggled with his command at Pensacola, resulting in a 10.4 percent walk rate — a 3.2 percent increase from his career numbers. Perhaps injuries played a role in the spike, as he wound up on the disabled list twice with a strained right groin and a bruised right shoulder. Travieso dropped 10 spots on Baseball America’s top 30 Reds prospects list, going from No. 7 in 2016 to No. 17 entering 2017.
Bullpen
Last year, the Bats set a franchise record for most strikeouts in a single season with 1,068. The relievers played a large role in making that happen, as 498 of those came from them, the most in nine years. The bullpen also posted the lowest ERA (3.61) the team has witnessed since 2010.
The bullpen, however, will have a new look to it in 2017. Of the 10 pitchers that tossed more than 20 innings in a relief role with the Bats last year, only three of them are still with the organization: Wandy Peralta, Kevin Shackelford, and Stephen Johnson.
Peralta is a prime candidate to make the big league club out of spring training given the scarcity of left-handed pitchers in the Reds’ bullpen. Peralta accrued a combined 2.50 ERA in 75.1 innings pitched for Pensacola and Louisville last season.
Jumbo Diaz led the Bats with 11 saves in 2016, but handed the closing reigns over to Shackelford following his promotion to the big league club in late-June. The right-hander came over in the Jonathan Broxton trade with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014, and didn’t disappoint in his first taste of Triple-A action last year. Shackelford became the first Bats pitcher since Zach Duke in 2013 to begin a season with 10 consecutive scoreless appearances. He wound up converting eight of his 10 save opportunities and posted the lowest ERA of any Bats reliever at 2.30. Shackelford will likely assume closing duties again in 2017.
Johnson also made his Triple-A debut last year and led all Bats relief pitchers in innings pitched with 74.2, a new career-high for the right-hander. While his numbers weren’t all that impressive, Johnson finished the year strong, allowing only four runs in his last 15 innings pitched.
The other names that are expected to join the bullpen include Alejandro Chacin, Rob Wooten, Louis Coleman, Evan Mitchell, Geoff Broussard, and Lucas Luetge — the only left-handed pitcher among the group.
Chacin spent all of last year at Pensacola and became one of the top relievers in Double-A. Chacin allowed only 12 runs in 60.2 innings pitched, while his 30 saves led the Southern League and were tied for the second most of any minor league pitcher. He was tabbed a Southern League All-Star, MiLB.com Organization All-Star, and Baseball America Class AA All-Star.
Chacin will likely be called upon in high-leverage situations considering he was actually better with runners in scoring position (.188 opponent batting average) than with the bases empty (.239 opponent batting average). He could very well supplant Shackelford as the closer at some point in 2017.
At age 31, Wooten is the oldest pitcher in the Reds’ farm system. The veteran spent his entire career in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization up until last year, as he found a new home with the Atlanta Braves and their Triple-A team. Six of the 35 games Wooten appeared in for the Gwinnett Braves were starts, marking the first season in which he’s ever taken the mound in the first inning. Overall, Wooten was 3–5 with a 3.58 ERA and 1.17 WHIP last year.
Like Wooten, Coleman experienced a change of scenery in 2016 after a five-year career in the Kansas City Royals’ organization. The 30-year-old pitched nearly all of last season in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpen and made 61 appearances, the most he’s ever garnered at any level. Coleman was effective when entering the game in dicey situations, stranding 29 of the 37 baserunners he inherited. For his career, Coleman possesses a 2.23 ERA in the minors compared to a 3.51 ERA in the majors.
Mitchell was promoted from Class A Daytona to Class AA Pensacola a couple months into the 2016 season and pitched 46.2 innings, all as a reliever. He had a career-low 2.70 ERA and 8.1 percent walk rate with the Blue Wahoos.
Broussard and Luetge both signed minor league contracts with the Reds during the offseason, but did nothing to write home about in 2016.
Catcher
Rob Brantly will likely get the nod to catch on a daily basis. Brantly spent last year with the Seattle Mariners’ Triple-A team in Tacoma, hitting .244 with a career-high 14 home runs and 43 RBI for the Rainiers. Throughout the course of his career, Brantly has appeared in 112 big league games with the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox.
Backing Brantly up will be either Shawn Zarraga or Chad Wallach, both of which dealt with injuries last year. Zarraga missed the first two months of the season after suffering a concussion, while Wallach was absent for a month and a half following a broken left hand.
Zarraga caught the last two seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and combined to hit .256 between Class AA Tulsa and Class AAA Oklahoma City. Wallach slashed .240/.363/.410 last year with Double-A Pensacola, his first-ever season above Single-A.
