St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals: Jordan Schafer is Rick Ankiel 2.0

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

In case you missed it, the St. Louis Cardinals announced on Monday that they were signing three players to minor league contracts (announced later that this number was actually five players to minor league deals). One of these is essentially a reincarnation of an amazing OF/P.

The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Monday that they signed catcher Gabriel Lino, reunited with catcher Eric Fryer (I actually wrote about this need earlier on Monday), and signed LHP/OF Jordan Schafer all to minor league deals.

In addition to these, we have learned this morning that the Cardinals also signed LHP Daniel Schlereth and second baseman Dickie Joe Thon to minor league deals. These signings indicate to me that something is coming and that GM Mozeliak is preparing the farm to should the load. More on that later.

Let’s get back to the subject at-hand: the signing of Schafer. Schafer, maybe the most intriguing name in this list (aside for Fryer to me who I really, really like), was a one-time outfielder who was transitioned to pitching by the Dodgers last season. Remind you of anyone (just in reverse fashion)? Reminds me of the great Rick Ankiel.

Let’s take a look at Schafer’s numbers. First up, offense:

Year	Age	Tm	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2009	22	ATL	50	167	18	34	8	0	2	8	2	1	27	63	.204	.313	.287	.600

2011	24	TOT	82	302	46	73	10	3	2	13	22	4	28	70	.242	.309	.315	.624
2011	24	ATL	52	196	32	47	6	3	1	7	15	4	18	42	.240	.307	.316	.623
2011	24	HOU	30	106	14	26	4	0	1	6	7	0	10	28	.245	.314	.311	.625
2012	25	HOU	106	313	40	66	10	2	4	23	27	9	36	106	.211	.297	.294	.591
2013	26	ATL	94	231	32	57	8	3	3	21	22	6	29	73	.247	.331	.346	.677
2014	27	TOT	104	210	26	50	9	1	1	15	30	7	22	48	.238	.310	.305	.615
2014	27	ATL	63	80	9	13	4	0	0	2	15	2	10	20	.163	.256	.213	.468
2014	27	MIN	41	130	17	37	5	1	1	13	15	5	12	28	.285	.345	.362	.707
2015	28	MIN	27	69	9	15	3	0	0	5	0	3	3	23	.217	.250	.261	.511
6 Yrs	463	1292	171	295	48	9	12	85	103	30	145	383	.228	.308	.307	.615
162 Game Avg.	162	452	60	103	17	3	4	30	36	10	51	134	.228	.308	.307	.615

Not too great, no? To better understand why the Dodgers would take the gamble on moving Schafer to the mound, let’s add in his defensive numbers in the outfield:

Year	Tm	Age	Pos	G	GS	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	Fld%	Rtot	Rdrs	RF/9	RF/G	lgRF9	lgRFG
2011	TOT	24	CF	79	72	672.0	194	191	1	2	.990	-5	-7	2.57	2.43	2.55	2.54
2011	TOT	24	OF	79	72	672.0	194	191	1	2	.990	-5	-7	2.57	2.43	2.16	2.15
2012	HOU	25	CF	87	82	692.2	184	178	4	2	.989	-16	-6	2.36	2.09	2.49	2.46
2012	HOU	25	OF	87	82	692.2	184	178	4	2	.989	-16	-6	2.36	2.09	2.11	2.09
2013	ATL	26	OF	68	51	493.2	132	126	5	1	.992	5	3	2.39	1.93	2.13	2.13
2013	ATL	26	CF	30	23	215.0	62	60	2	0	1.000	0	1	2.60	2.07	2.49	2.49
2013	ATL	26	RF	29	20	204.0	58	54	3	1	.983	6	2	2.51	1.97	2.08	2.08
2013	ATL	26	LF	15	8	74.2	12	12	0	0	1.000	-1	0	1.45	0.80	1.83	1.82
2014	TOT	27	OF	71	52	501.1	129	125	2	2	.984	4	-4	2.28	1.79	2.22	2.19
2014	TOT	27	LF	49	32	312.2	70	67	2	1	.986	5	-1	1.99	1.41	1.98	1.94
2014	TOT	27	CF	20	18	158.2	53	52	0	1	.981	0	-3	2.95	2.60	2.57	2.58
2014	TOT	27	RF	6	2	30.0	6	6	0	0	1.000	-1	0	1.80	1.00	2.04	2.05
2015	MIN	28	OF	27	20	187.0	57	55	1	1	.982	-8	-3	2.70	2.07	2.20	2.19
2015	MIN	28	CF	26	20	182.0	57	55	1	1	.982	-8	-3	2.77	2.15	2.68	2.66
2015	MIN	28	LF	1	0	5.0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0.00	0.00	1.98	1.90
	6 Seasons	OF	382	326	2978.2	827	802	17	8	.990	-28	-28	2.47	2.14	2.16	2.15
	6 Seasons	CF	292	264	2352.1	681	663	12	6	.991	-37	-29	2.58	2.31	2.55	2.53
	3 Seasons	LF	65	40	392.1	82	79	2	1	.988	4	-1	1.86	1.25	1.95	1.91
	2 Seasons	RF	35	22	234.0	64	60	3	1	.984	5	2	2.42	1.80	2.07	2.07
	6 Seasons	TOT	382	326	2978.2	827	802	17	8	.990	-28	-28	2.47	2.14	2.16	2.15
Lg		Pos	G	GS	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	Fld%	Rtot	Rdrs	RF/9	RF/G	lgRF9	lgRFG

Noticed that Schafer’s career RF/9 and RF/G stats fall above the league average when he appeared in the outfield so he showed promise for six seasons. Fangraphs awards him a career UZR of -0.7 in LF, -14.6 in CF, and 1.3 in RF. So there it is. That and his weakened batting stats shown above and one can see why the Dodgers might have taken the chance on him moving to the mound.

So let’s take a look at his mound stats:

Year	Age	Tm	Lev	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	WHIP
2016	29	3 Teams	AA-AAA-Rk	1	1	.500	3.83	40	2	49.1	56	21	5	18	0	59	1.500
2016	29	Dodgers	Rk	0	0		0.00	3	1	3.0	0	0	0	1	0	6	0.333
2016	29	Tulsa	AA	1	1	.500	3.15	31	1	40.0	41	14	4	17	0	46	1.450
2016	29	Oklahoma City	AAA	0	0		9.95	6	0	6.1	15	7	1	0	0	7	2.368
All Levels (1 Season)		1	1	.500	3.83	40	2	49.1	56	21	5	18	0	59	1.500

A left-handed pitcher is often coveted and this could well have been one of the reasons for sending Schafer through the minors in 2016 to build and convert him to a pitcher. While the sample size is very limited, it appears that there might be something here…

Any team would rather a pen arm surrender fewer hits per innings pitched but for a guy just learning the ropes on the mound, surrendering forty-one hits per forty innings in AA isn’t too terrible. It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals will continue the experiment.

To that end, Derrick Goold suggested:

Schafer would be one of those relievers who could come into a game, face LHB, play OF for RHB, then face LHB. Also possible PR. #Cardinals

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) December 12, 2016

This all sounds eerily similar to the great Rick Ankiel who started his career as a pitcher but was rebuilt as an outfielder in order to continue his career. For comparison sake, Ankiel’s career slash line was .240/.302/.422. In the outfield, Ankiel was awarded a UZR of 1.7 in LF, -7.4 in CF, and -3.8 in RF. As a pitcher, Ankiel posted a 3.90 career ERA across 242 innings. See the similarities?

Rick Ankiel played baseball professionally until he turned thirty-three; Schafer turned thirty at the tail end of the 2016 campaign. While each player is different, perhaps the Rick-Ankiel-ization of Jordan Schafer will pay dividends for the next three years.

One last thing, I mentioned above that this loading of the farm- this addition of five new bodies to the farm- indicates to me that something is coming. I feel that Mozeliak is loading on bodies to either make another move or to protect the team from the Astros penalties to come or next season’s new rules of the CBA. I know we all hope that another big splash is coming, right?

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So what do you think? Do you think Schafer could well be the next Rick Ankiel? I will enjoy watching Schafer in Memphis this season and will keep you posted. Thanks for reading!