Is Michael Feliz a bullpen option in 2019?

One of the pieces acquired in the Gerrit Cole trade, reliever Michael Feliz looked to have a high leverage role with the Pittsburgh Pirates for years to come.

Things didn’t go very well for Feliz during his first season in a Pirates uniform. He’s been smacked around for a 6.02 ERA in 43.1 innings pitched. None of the other numbers look better either, like the 4.14 FIP or the 1.546 WHIP.

Overall the 2018 season was simply a lost one for Feliz.

But Feliz showed he could be effective Monday night when he tossed a nice inning against the Kansas City Royals.

The problem is that after a solid April and May that had many wanting to take over the eighth inning duties from George Kontos, it’s been all downhill for Feliz.

That begs the question of if there’s a future role in the Pirates bullpen for him next season?

The Struggles

After an outing on May 20 against the San Diego Padres, Feliz sat with a 2.70 ERA and many felt comfortable with him in late-inning situations.

In 21 appearances since, Feliz had only eight outings in which he didn’t allow at least one run.  In only three of those did he not allow a base runner and one of those three appearances he faced only one batter.

Since May 20 the numbers are ugly.

In that span Feliz has pitched 23.1 MLB innings with an 8.87 ERA and he’s allowed 25 runs (23 earned) in those 23.1 innings of work.

Opposing hitters have put up a .317/.400/.551 line against him. His FIP sits at 5.77 and xFIP at 5.25.

Feliz’s strikeouts are down at 8.9 K/9 and his walks are up at 4.6/9.

It’s really hard to find any positives about Feliz, but he’s also the same guy who limited opposing hitters to a .213/.280/.347 line in his first 23 appearances.

In that span Feliz had a 2.70 ERA, 2.25 FIP and 3.09 xFIP. He had an 11.8 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9.

One thing he was able to do better in that span was leave runners on base as he had an LOB% of 78.7% compared to just 53% after May 21.

Before May 21. Feliz allowed a 28.6 hard contact rate. After it jumped to 43.6 percent.

What happened?

For me it’s the slider.

There was an at bat in late April against Philadelphia’s Rhys Hoskins where Hoskins yanked a slider foul and Feliz got scared of the slider and just used the fastball. Hoskins destroyed one for a homer.

In the first half of Feliz’s season, prior to May 21, as you can see by the chart below, He had some success with the fastball and it set up the slider, which was a great pitch for him. He allowed very little damage off the pitch.

Since May 21 Feliz lost the ability to throw the slider effectively.

He’s thrown the fastball less and the slider a lot less and started working in a change.

But instead of the slider being a weapon for him, it’s become a liability.

For Feliz to have any future with the Pirates, he has to rediscover that slider in the offseason.

Is there a spot for Feliz in 2019?

He’s under team control through 2021, but that likely doesn’t mean much if he can’t get batters out.

Feliz has the tools. He just has to get straightened out.

But even if he does, the Pirates bullpen appears set going into next year and beyond.

Richard Rodriguez, Edgar Santana, Kyle Crick, Keone Kela and Felipe Vazquez are going to handle all the high leverage situations as well as they should.

You aren’t going to keep Feliz on the roster for mop up duty and he’s not going to be a long guy.

That leads me to believe that Feliz would have to be awfully dominant in the spring to even be in the conversation for a roster spot.

There will likely be a time in 2019, whether it be injury or performance related, that Feliz will be summoned on.

He’s going to have to get a whole lot better though for anyone to have any confidence in him to get the job done though.

Monday night was a small step in the right direction.

Feliz should get some opportunities the rest of September.

We will see which Feliz shows up.