Exit Interview: Kevin Siegrist

For the fourth straight year, we’re taking some time in that time between the end of the season and the winter meetings to discuss each player that made an appearance on the St. Louis roster this season.  Whether they played almost every day or never actually got into a game, they get covered in this series.  All stats are exclusively their time in St. Louis.  Just think of this as them stopping by Mike Matheny‘s office for a quick evaluation before heading home for the winter.

Player: Kevin Siegrist

Season stats: 7-1, 6 SV, 2.17 ERA, 81 games, 74.2 IP, 53 H, 4 HR, 34 BB, 90 K, 1.165 WHIP, 2.91 FIP,  2.1 bWAR

Hero/Goat: Goat 6

Overall grade: A-

Positives: Bounced back from 2014’s injury plagued year with a vengeance…struck out over 10 per nine innings for the third straight year….was 3-0 at home with a 1.59 ERA….batters hit just .176 against him in the second half and he allowed just one homer over that span….had a 0.71 ERA in 12.2 June innings….batters hit .198 against him whether they swung at the first pitch or took the first pitch….the first batter he faced hit .149/.200/.203….righthanders hit just .164 against him…batters hit just .176 against him when there were no outs in the inning….allowed a .067 BAA with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Negatives: Was relatively roughed up by lefties, allowing a .278/.406/.405 line to them….had an ugly postseason, allowing three home runs in his last two appearances, all three to left-handed batters (Anthony Rizzo twice, Kyle Schwarber)….had a 2.91 ERA away from Busch Stadium….batters hit .308 and slugged .615 on his first pitch….while still good, his highest average allowed was with two outs (.219)….needed to pitch regularly, as on three days’ rest, he allowed a .364/.417/.455 line (though, to be fair, that was just six games).

Overview: Siegrist was the most used pitcher in the major leagues this season, appearing in exactly half the team’s games.  It seemed to catch up to him some in August, when he had a 4.85 ERA due to a couple of bad outings.  September was better (1.93 ERA) but he still walked 10 of his 34 batters in that month.  So perhaps the wear and tear of the season did finally become to much for him.  Heaven knows he didn’t have his great stuff in October.

That being said, it was a good season for Siegrist.  Having arm injuries in 2014, there was no telling what he was going to be like this past season and he put up numbers that looked more like his outrageous rookie season than his nightmare year last year.  Anytime you get a pitcher back that has been dealing with arm problems and he looks good, you count it as a win.

Siegrist’s reverse splits were interesting this year.  They were so pronounced that at least once in the NLDS Joe Maddon sent up a left-handed pinch-hitter to face him.  He had a similar split last year, though with the injuries it’s hard to know how much credence to give to them.  As long as Matheny uses him as the eighth inning guy instead of trying to get him to face lefties, it won’t matter too much.

Outlook: We’ll see if Siegrist’s arm responds after such significant usage this year.  If there are no setbacks, there’s no reason why he can’t be the eighth inning guy yet again in 2016, setting up Trevor Rosenthal and hopefully combining with a healthy Jordan Walden to make for a dangerous late inning tandem.

  • J. Williams November 13, 2015, 12:19 pm

    Kevin, Seth, and Tyler are some of my favorites to have watched and cheered for as they’ve worked their way up through the minors to the Cardinals team. Way to go, guys! See you in ’16.

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