St. Louis Cardinals Recall Tyler Lyons, Miguel Socolovich, and Nick Greenwood
As they continue to expand their roster for the stretch run, the St. Louis Cardinals promoted three pitchers–lefthanders Tyler Lyons and Nick Greenwood and righthander Miguel Socolovich–from Triple-A Memphis before Wednesday’s game. With the Cardinals looking to give starter Michael Wacha, who missed much of the 2014 season with a shoulder injury, a break down the stretch, Lyons was immediately cast into duty and started Wednesday’s series finale against the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium. He worked well under the circumstances and delivered a quality start, allowing three earned runs (all on solo home runs), giving up six hits and a walk over six innings.
As long as he’s not making spot starts for guys like Wacha and Carlos Martinez, Lyons could be a key member of the Cardinals’ bullpen down the stretch, as he has thrown 7.2 scoreless innings of relief this season and has an 0.83 ERA as a reliever over 14 career appearances spanning 31.2 innings. Though he’s been inconsistent against lefty hitters at times this year, they’re hitting just .223 against him through the course of his three-year career, and because of that he may be a more useful option than Randy Choate, since he’s also comfortable facing righthanders and can go multiple innings.
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Greenwood has thrown just eight pitches as a Cardinal this season, one of which was a two-run walkoff home run by Andrew McCutchen during Greenwood’s only big-league action on July 11. Though Greenwood had been decently effective as a long reliever for the Cardinals in 2014, it frankly was quite surprising to see him promoted to the major-league club, seeing as he had a 5.68 ERA with a .314 opponent average and 1.46 WHIP over 123.2 innings in Triple-A this season.
That’s especially so with a GM like John Mozeliak who is hesitant to promote unneeded players when rosters expand in September. Now that Greenwood’s been promoted to the major-league team, guys like Xavier Scruggs, Dean Anna, and Ed Easley would seem to be in major danger of being designated for assignment if the Cardinals do indeed activate Matt Adams and/or Matt Belisle from the 60-day disabled list later this month. (That’s less of a likelihood now with Adams, who recently suffered a setback in his recovery.) It is worth noting that Greenwood, who started the final game of the season for the Cardinals last year and started 21 games for Memphis this season, could deliver a spot start down the stretch and make up for the loss of a guy like Tim Cooney, who will be unable to rejoin the team this month following an appendicitis.
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Socolovich has posted unbelievable numbers at every level where he’s pitched this season, putting up a 1.54 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP and .205 opponent average in 23.1 big-league innings, while throwing for a 2.48 ERA and an incredible .165 opponent average and 0.92 WHIP in 32.2 innings at Memphis. The 29-year-old’s only crimes are that he’s a 10-year minor-league veteran and doesn’t have electrifying stuff, and it’s a shame that he ever lost his spot in the Cardinals’ bullpen to begin with this season after delivering such a strong performance when given an opportunity.
With those three pitchers coming up, lefthanded starter Marco Gonzales was optioned to Triple-A. Gonzales, who made his first big-league appearance of 2015 on Tuesday and gave up four earned runs on seven hits in a 2.2-inning start, will return to Memphis and likely make one more start before the Redbirds’ season ends on September 7. Gonzales could return as a spot starter and lefty specialist after then, though with the 23-year-old’s injury struggles and general ineffectiveness through 2015, it wouldn’t be that surprising if the Cardinals just sent Gonzales home and told him to get ready for next year.