Photo Credit: Scott Paulus/Brewers
Odds are no one who came to Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago was hoping or expecting to see Milwaukee Brewers catcher Erik Kratz pitch. Kratz, a 38-year-old, nine-year MLB veteran who has played in about 250 MLB games, had pitched just three times in his career. The Brewers called upon him to pitch the eighth inning of an ugly loss in Cincinnati, a game where the Reds had scored eight runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 10-3 lead. Three relievers had already pitched in the game, and Craig Counsell turned to Kratz instead of using a fourth. It’s a move they should, perhaps, consider making more often.
Kratz, of course, was not effective from the mound in the traditional sense. He threw an 80-mph fastball and a roughly 60-mph changeup-curve, and the Reds hit him around to the tune of a two-run inning on two hits and a walk. Kratz’s poor performance, however, didn’t cost the Brewers much of significance. FanGraphs estimates the Reds had a 99.9% chance of winning when Kratz took the mound and a 100% chance when he departed.
In the meantime, Kratz’s inning saved the Brewers bullpen—including many of the relievers they typically use in high-leverage situations—from having to warm up and waste an appearance in a game where the outcome had already been decided. Through Sunday’s game, Brewers relievers had already made 282 appearances on the season and covered 321 innings. Kratz (and, earlier in the season, Hernan Perez) helped lighten that load, albeit slightly.
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Across baseball, managers seem to be coming around to the concept of allowing position players to soak up low-leverage innings. According to the B-Ref Play Index, in 2018 there have already been 25 pitching appearances by position players, not counting nine by two-way player Shohei Ohtani of the Angels. There were 36 in 2017 and 26 in 2016.
Recent usage of the strategy has raised some eyebrows among traditional baseball thinkers: On Saturday, June 23, the Chicago Cubs put catcher Chris Gimenez into the eighth inning of a game against the Reds when they were only trailing by six runs, surrendering their chances of winning earlier than some were comfortable with. On Sunday, July 3, the Rays went a step further, putting catcher Jesus Sucre in to defend a five-run lead in the bottom of the 16th inning of a game against the Marlins despite still having relievers available. The latter decision didn’t go so well: Sucre ended up giving up two runs on three hits over just 1/3rd of an inning, and Tampa Bay ended up using another reliever anyway.
The most frequent recent adopters of the strategy, however, included two 2017 playoff teams. On their way to a surprise playoff appearance, the Twins allowed catcher Chris Gimenez (the same Chris Gimenez mentioned above) to take the mound six times between April and June of last season. Minnesota lost those six games by an average of 9.8 runs, so Gimenez’s performances were, in all cases, negligible to the game’s outcome. They did, however, help a team that ended up making a postseason run keep their bullpen a bit fresher early in the season.
Another team utilized this strategy en route to the World Series. The Astros let three different position players make a combined four appearances late in blowouts in 2017. Waving the white flag early in those contests wasn’t enough to prevent them from winning 101 games and the first MLB championship in franchise history.
The Brewers, for their part, have embraced other strategies to keep relievers fresh. They’ve taken to asking relievers to pitch longer outings but less frequent appearances, and they’ve utilized their roster flexibility to regularly bring fresh arms up from the minors to provide bullpen coverage. That said, they may need all the help they can get to keep an oft-used bullpen fresh and effective into the stretch run. Letting a position player soak up a low-leverage inning from time to time is one tool at their disposal.
