The Cardinals retooled their fatigued bullpen Monday,
releasing veteran left-hander JC Romero and recalling right-hander Eduardo
Sanchez from Triple-A Memphis.
Romero had a 10.13 ERA in 11 appearances with the Cardinals and allowed 14 hits
in eight innings. He started the year with eight scoreless appearances but gave
up 10 hits and nine earned runs in 3 1/3 innings over his final three outings.
"Clearly when you look at how Romero was pitching, we had to do better,"
general manager John Mozeliak said.
Sanchez nearly made the Cardinals Opening Day roster after not allowing a run in
spring training, but control issues forced him to start at Triple-A. Those
issues stayed with him early in the year at Memphis, but he's regained his form
of late.
At Memphis, the 23-year-old right-hander posted a 6.08 ERA in 14 appearances, but
didn't allow a hit or run in his last five appearances.
"Sanchez was throwing the ball well at Memphis," Cardinals manager
Mike Matheny said. "We were keeping a close eye on him. He was a guy we
were very close to keeping in spring training as it was. It was nice to see him
throwing well and we knew he had a couple days off to come in and help us right
away."
Sanchez appeared in 26 games for the Cardinals as a rookie in 2011 and went 3-1
with a 1.80 ERA in 30 innings. He had 35 strikeouts to 16 walks and yielded
just one home run to the 118 batters he faced.
The subtraction of Romero means the Cardinals will at least temporarily have
just one left-handed reliever in the bullpen. They regularly had at least two
lefties in the ‘pen during the 16-run of former manager Tony La Russa.
But having Marc Rzepczynski as the only lefty in the bullpen doesn't bother
Matheny. At least for now.
"Not at all," Matheny said. "We've got (right-handers Kyle)
McClellan and (Victor) Marte both this year who have been as good as many
left-handed specialists as far as getting lefties out. I think you have to go
not just with somebody who throws with a left hand, but how they do against
left-handed hitters.
"If you've got some righties that do a better job of getting out lefties,
what's the difference? As long as they are effective with those left-handed
hitters, we'll be able to use them."
Left-handers are hitting just .179 against McClellan this year while Marte has
held lefties to a .100 clip so far. The right-handed McClellan has routinely
pitched well against lefties throughout his career.
Rzepczynski, who entered Monday's game against the Chicago Cubs with a 2.25 ERA
in 15 games and 12 innings, is holding lefties to a .143 average against him.
"I'm going to do the same thing I've been doing," Rzepczynski said.
"I know Mike has a lot of faith in a lot of the righties to go out there
and get lefties out, so, I'm expecting to do the same thing I've been doing so
far this year.
"I still think Mike is going to use me in the seventh or eighth inning
depending on the lineup. I'll go face the left, right left. I don't think it's
going to change anything because of the righties we had."
The Cardinals promoted promising young left-handed reliever Sam Freeman from Double-A
Springfield to Memphis on Monday as well. Freeman, already a member of the
40-man roster, is seen as a future big league lefty specialist.
