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St. Louis Cardinals Remove Trevor Rosenthal from Closer Role

By Patrick Karraker

Jun 15, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal (44) walks off the field after being removed from the game during the ninth inning against the Houston Astros at Busch Stadium. The Astros won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 15, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal (44) walks off the field after being removed from the game during the ninth inning against the Houston Astros at Busch Stadium. The Astros won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /
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The St. Louis Cardinals will go down a different path with their closer role after Mike Matheny decided to reassign Trevor Rosenthal within the bullpen on Saturday.

St. Louis Cardinals Twitter GMs have gotten their wish, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold reported prior to Saturday’s game that closer Trevor Rosenthal will be removed from the closer role that he’s held since September of 2013. Rosenthal’s fate was sealed when he gave up a walk-off home run to Seattle Mariners first baseman Adam Lind on Friday night.

Rosenthal, who had the most single-season saves (48) in Cardinals history during an All-Star 2015 and has the fifth-most (110) in Cardinals history, has blown three saves in 17 opportunities this year. His overall numbers are not good, as he has a 5.63 ERA, .292 opponent batting average, and 2.04 WHIP. He’d at least been solid in save situations up until June, but that’s no longer the case, as he’s been bad pretty much every time out.

In 11 June appearances, Rosenthal has a 14.14 ERA, .406 opponent batting average, and 3.00 WHIP. Two of his three blown saves have come during the month. He’s making $5.6 million this season.

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Though he’s just 26, history would suggest that Rosenthal won’t return to the Cardinals’ closer role again. Just a select few closers in recent years have been removed and ended up returning to the role for any extended amount of time with the same team. Those names include Brian Fuentes, who was removed in favor of Manny Corpas by the Colorado Rockies in 2007, only to regain the role in April of 2008. Brad Lidge, who was unofficially taken out of the role by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009 while accumulating the worst full-season ERA in major-league history (7.21) for any closer with 20 or more saves, regained his role in 2010. Francisco Rodriguez also was pulled from the Brewers’ closer role and would eventually return to it, though that was during his second season with the team.

Perhaps it’s a radical idea, but maybe the best idea to keep Rosenthal useful is to begin stretching him out as the Cardinals’ long reliever and prepare him for a starting role later on in the 2016 season. John Mozeliak said earlier this week that top prospect Alex Reyes doesn’t yet have the endurance to be a major-league starter, and there are no other obvious options at Triple-A, other than perhaps Jerome Williams–he of the 4.57 career major-league ERA–who would be strong candidates to take over in the rotation if an injury occurred.

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In addition, that decision would allow current long man Tyler Lyons, who has excelled against lefthanded hitters, holding them to an .091 average this season, to move into a more suitable matchup relief role.

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