Think back to 2015 when Trevor Rosenthal was the Cardinals closer. He had a 2.10 E.R.A. and saved 48 games for the Cardinals. He was picked for the All Star Team that summer and even got MVP votes finishing 17th in the race for MVP. He had 83 strikeouts in just 68 ⅔ innings for a 10.9 strikeout rate per 9 innings pitched. Simply said – he was dominant. Last year Rosenthal had a shoulder injury and never seemed right. His injury opened the door for Seung-Hwan Oh, who ran with it and had a pretty good season as the Cardinals closer. While dealing with injuries last year, Trevor appeared in just 45 games (his lowest amount since his rookie year in 2012) pitching to a 4.46 E.R.A while allowing 6.5 walks per 9 innings and striking out 12.5 guys per inning. While he still had strikeout stuff, he simply was walking too many batters. He was gave up more hits (48) than innings pitched (40 ⅓ ) while struggling with a 1.9 WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched. Every inning, on average, he had about 2 runners on. That also meant for the times he had a clean inning, the next time he would have allowed 4 runners to get that average WHIP at 1.9 (alarmingly high). Trevor Rosenthal who was once known as “Closenthal” but became “Blowsenthal” on internet forums last year in a very trying season.
It took me awhile to circle back – but Welcome Back Trevor Rosenthal.
He has been nothing short of DOMINANT so far this season. He has pitched in 15 games this season posting a 1.88 E.R.A and serving as Oh’s set up man (though he has earned 3 saves when Oh wasn’t available). Trevor has 25 strikeouts in 14 ⅓ innings pitched for a rate of 15.7 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. He has also cut down on his walks by only allowing 3 this season. He is averaging more than 8 strikeouts per walk allowed this season. His WHIP is literally a whole run less at just .9 this season. He has struck out 45 % of the hitters he has faced this season! As Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported, Rosenthal has the 2nd highest average fastball this year at 99.1 mph just .2 mph behind Arroldis Chapman who is now injured. Out of current active pitchers Rosenthal’s fastball is the fastest.
Trevor can now be referred to as “Holdsenthal” because when he pitches it’s almost a guarantee that he will hold the other team to 0 runs. Since the calendar turned to May, Trevor has pitched 7 innings allowing 1 hit, 1 walk, and striking out 10. Without a steady group of set up men, Oh doesn’t get to do his thing in the ninth. Trevor Rosenthal is showing baseball that he’s back and as dominant as ever.
Let me now tell you about all the great things Brett Cecil has done this season.
Thanks for reading!
