Cincinnati Reds: Ground ball is key to success for Reiver Sanmartin

Reiver Sanmartin could offer the Cincinnati Reds a crafty left-hander out of the bullpen, but in order to find success, he’ll have to keep the ball down.

When the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees made a trade last winter, most of the focus was on the acquisition of right-hander Sonny Gray. However, the Reds also snagged a crafty left-hander named Reiver Sanmartin. While not overpowering with his stuff, Sanmartin offers a valued skillset for pitchers who play at Great American Ball Park.

While with the Yankees organization, Sanmartin made it all the way up to Double-A Trenton. However, to begin the 2019 season, the Reds shipped Sanmartin down to Advanced-A Daytona. Sanmartin eventually was promoted to Double-A Chattanooga and, one the 2020 season begins, he’ll likely start at Triple-A Louisville.

However, starter is unlikely to be in Sanmartin’s future. Though the southpaw has been a starting pitcher throughout his minor-league career, he likely has much more value for the Reds pitching out of the bullpen.

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Last season, in 25 starts between Advanced-A Daytona and Double-A Chattanooga, Reiver Sanmartin went 4-12 with a 4.05 ERA. Those numbers are not great, but Sanmartin performed much better while playing for the Tortugas than when he made the jump to play with the Lookouts. While some may point to the competition, a bigger stat sticks out.

According to FanGraphs, while playing for the Daytona Tortugas, Sanmartin owned a 55.4% ground ball-rate. That gave way to a 3.78 ERA and a 2.78 xFIP. For those unfamiliar with xFIP, it’s a metric used similarly to FIP, but replaces a pitcher’s home run total with an estimate of how many homers a pitcher should give up.

Now, fast-forward to Sanmartin’s promotion to Double-A Chattanooga, and we saw a reduction in the left-hander’s ground ball-rate. Sanmartin’s ground ball-rate dropped to 41.5% and his xFIP jumped to 3.62. The lefty’s ERA also jumped from 3.78 to 4.34.

Reiver Sanmartin is not going to strikeout a lot of batters, as is evidenced by his 8.39 K/9 and 21.1% strikeout-rate in 2019. However, Sanmartin is not going to walk a lot of players either, as the left-hander put up 5.1% walk-rate in Advanced-A and a 6.6% walk-rate in Double-A last season.

We’ve also seen Reiver Sanmartin absolutely dominate left-handed hitters. Last season, lefties hit just .200/.257/.244 off Sanmartin 135 at-bats. However, right-handed hitters had their way with Sanmartin, lighting him up to the tune of .285/.330/.427. Of the 11 home runs Sanmartin surrendered in 2019, 10 came off the bat of right-handed hitters.

Where Reiver Sanmartin fits in the Reds plans heading into 2020 is anyone’s guess, but I’d look for him to start the season in Double-A Chattanooga with an impending promotion to Triple-A Louisville hinging on his ability to induce ground balls and get out lefties. If he can do that, Sanmartin may receive a call to the bigs in the latter part of the 2020 season.