Is Converting Johan Oviedo to Starter the Right Choice? (+)
During MLB’s trade deadline and the buildup last week, Pittsburgh Pirates fans wondered who they would get for certain inevitable trade candidates, like Jose Quintana.
In a bit of a surprising move, the Pirates traded Quintana, the veteran left-hander, and reliever Chris Stratton to the St. Louis Cardinals for a prospect and a major league pitcher — corner infielder Malcom Nunez and right-hander Johan Oviedo.
Although Nuñez is an interesting prospect, Oviedo is closer to major league-ready as he already had experience in the big leagues with the Cardinals.
The six-foot-five Cuban native signed with the Cardinals back in July 2016 and made his major league debut in August 2020.
Oviedo offers a basic four-pitch mix with a four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. He sticks heavily to the four-seam/slider combo with around 43% usage rate on both.
Looking purely at the heat map of his pitches, Oviedo seems to have a good feel for his slider, with the majority of the pitches thrown on the bottom third of the plate and away from right-handed batters.
One of the more pressing questions with Oviedo is whether to use him as a starter or reliever.
At the major league level, Oviedo has started 19 games and pitched 87.1 innings. During that time, Oviedo has amassed an ERA of 5.36, allowed 91 hits, 12 home runs, 48 walks, and struck out 68. He also has a record of 0-9 in that role.
As a reliever, Oviedo has pitched 25 innings, with an ERA of 2.16, 20 hits, three home runs, six walks, and 25 strikeouts.
It would appear that Oviedo is best suited for a bullpen role. During his time in the bullpen in ’22 with the Cardinals, he was used more than one inning in nine out of 14 games. That seems to fit the role Dillon Peters and Wil Crowe fill with the Pirates perfectly.
However, the Pirates have different plans for Oviedo than the obvious one, which seems like business as usual for the club.
“We’re going to stretch him out as a starter for next year’s spring training,” said Pirates general manager Ben Cherington on 93.7 The Fan. “We want to see Oviedo compete for a starting role on this club come spring training next year. The aim this year is to stretch him out this year, and we hope it’s at the major league level.”
Much like Roansy Contreras getting “stretched out” in Triple-A, we might see Oviedo thrust into a similar role in Indianapolis.
“What we want to do first in Triple-A is to get Oviedo back to a more structured routine,” said Cherington. “Oviedo was in a bullpen role in St. Louis, and we want to get him in a more structured environment to get him in some work between outings. The early communication with Oviedo, is that we’d like to get him in for three innings or (around) 45 pitch mark and then assess.”
Cherington clarified that they want to approach Oviedo’s situation carefully while building his pitch count back up to a starter level,. That makes sense. If a pitcher starts the season as a starter then is put in the bullpen, he would have to be handled with kid gloves to have him again handle a starter’s workload for the second time in less than a year.
While stretching out Oviedo as a starter doesn’t bother me a ton, it does leave questions about Cherington’s off-season plans to acquire pitching.
If Oviedo is penciled in as a starter in ’23, that leaves the Pirates with a perfect excuse not to pursue rotation help going into a new season, which can be pricey. This scenario isn’t guaranteed but seems highly likely.