Ortiz: With bullpen in flux, Cardinals need more from Cecil

It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to ignore the loud chorus of Cardinals fans who remain worried about the team’s closer situation. Considering that the 2017 season was sabotaged in part by a leaky bullpen, the concerns are warranted.

Whether you trust Luke Gregerson or believe that hard-throwing righthander Alex Reyes will ultimately be an overpowering closer after he returns to the majors, though, there is one thing that even folks not worried about the closer would acknowledge:

It’s time for lefthander Brett Cecil to live up to the expectations that greeted him in St. Louis after he signed a four-year, $30.5 million free agent contract with the Cardinals last offseason.

It won’t matter who the Cardinals’ closer is if they cannot bridge the gap between the starters and the ninth inning.

Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Dexter Fowler, Matt Carpenter, ace Carlos Martinez, Marcell Ozuna and Jedd Gyorko are the only Cardinals who will earn more than Cecil this season.

Cecil must perform better than he did in his first season in St. Louis, when he posted a 2-4 record with a 3.88 ERA, one save and seven blown saves in 67 1/3 innings over 73 appearances.

Even though he was 1-7 with a 3.93 ERA and four blown saves in his final season with the Blue Jays in 2016, he and the Cardinals clearly expected a better debut at Busch Stadium.

“Obviously we signed him to a contract that we had high expectations for to have a positive impact in our bullpen,” executive John Mozeliak said. “I would say the one thing that stands out last year was his strikeout rate was down.

“We’re hopeful he can find that ability to create that swing and miss when needed. We still think he can be a very important part of our bullpen.”

Cecil’s 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings was his lowest rate since 2012. He averaged 11 strikeouts per nine innings in 2016, 11.6 in 2015, 12.8 in 2014 and 10.4 during his All-Star season in 2013.

If any Cardinals reliever can benefit from a clean slate, it’s Cecil.

By his own standards, on a scale from one to 10, Cecil readily acknowledges that his 2017 season didn’t live up to his expectations.

“I’m always happy and excited to start a new season,” he said. “I’d give myself probably a five or six out of 10. It was really bad at some points, and I was able to stabilize a little bit and keep an OK season. But I’m not happy or satisfied with it by any means.”

That’s good to hear because the Cardinals cannot afford for Cecil to stumble yet again. With three years and $23.25 million left on his contract, they need him to play a pivotal role in the bullpen.

Cecil definitely stumbled early with the Cardinals. He gave up two hits, two walks and a monstrous three-run homer to lefthanded-hitting Kyle Schwarber in his second appearance in St. Louis to turn a 4-2 lead into a 5-4 deficit and eventual loss.

One of the runners he left on base when he was relieved by Miguel Socolovich also scored, tagging him with four runs on no outs. His image suffered further that afternoon when he left the clubhouse without speaking to the media in part because of some miscommunication.

To Cecil’s credit, he proved to be one of the most accessible Cardinals the rest of the year and lived up to the solid reputation he garnered over the previous eight years with the Blue Jays.

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Cecil, an admittedly notorious slow starter, posted a 4.50 ERA over the first two months of the season over 18 innings and 26 appearances before settling in with a solid June (2.84 ERA) and July (2.53 ERA).

He showcased the dominant form that enticed the Cardinals when he rattled off 15 consecutive scoreless appearances over 15 innings from June 13 through July 14.

“I know I’m a little bit of a slow starter, so I don’t expect myself to be in June or July shape in April,” he said. “But I was a little bit better than what the season was last year, I think, is what I expected.”

Sure enough, Cecil was too inconsistent throughout the entire 2017 season. He was actually worse after the All-Star break. He was 1-2 with a 3.31 ERA over 35 1/3 innings in 43 appearance before the break and 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA over 32 innings in 30 games after the break.

There’s no denying that the Cardinals would still be wise to add another relief pitcher. You can expect them to add another quality reliever even if it’s not necessarily a closer.

Until then, the Cardinals’ bullpen appears to consist of John Brebbia, Matt Bowman and John Gant to eat some innings. The lefthanded setup men are likely to be Tyler Lyons and Cecil with Sam Tuivailala the most likely righthanded setup man. Lefthanded Ryan Sherriff also will enter camp fighting for a bullpen spot.

The hard-throwing Tuivailala, who is finally out of options, might eventually get a chance to prove that he deserves more than a setup role. He has grown from a pitcher who mainly depended on his four-seam fastball and curveball two years ago to one who has a two-seam fastball and slider in his arsenal.

He also accumulated 41 saves at Class AAA Memphis since 2014 while shuttling between St. Louis and Memphis in that span.

“Obviously, there are more eyes on you (in the majors),” said Tuivailala, who was 3-3 with a 2.55 ERA over 37 appearances in the majors last season. “It’s little bit more pressure coming into it. But I think with all the ups and downs and all the failures (that) have come along with my journey, I think that I’ve grown in that category.”

Cecil isn’t seen as an option to close, but his performance in 2018 will be crucial. He must be better.