When German Márquez won the 2018 Silver Slugger Award for the best hitting pitcher in the National League, few took umbrage with voting results, especially those in the Rocky Mountain region.
One pitcher in particular was not pleased by this announcement from Louisville Slugger, not to mention his team’s corresponding fan base.
Michael Lorenzen of the Cincinnati Reds led all pitchers in 2018 in several key offensive categories, including runs batted in (10) and home runs (4). He was 5th in runs scored with five and was the only relief pitcher with more than 50 appearances that even had as many as 12 at bats. Considering no pitcher in baseball had more than two homers – even then it was accomplished by only three others – and he was tied for 5th in runs scored (5), his resumé was rather worthy of recognition.
By comparison, Márquez hit just one homer, drove in five runs and scored four. He did put the ball in play better than most pitchers, striking out only 16.9% of at bats, while Lorenzen was quite higher at 26.5%. For all the times he’d swing out of his shoes and miss, Lorenzen did connect for more extra bases, slugging .710 and putting up 0.4 wins above replacement, overall; Márquez slugged only .350, but put up a superior 0.7 WAR. Both players had .333 on base percentage.
The most impressive line for Lorenzen was his isolated slugging percentage. Calculated by subtracting batting average from slugging percentage to get the greatest sense of a player’s raw power. In 2018, Lorenzen had a .419 ISO; by comparison, the highest qualified hitter last year was Mike Trout’s .316 ISO.
For 2019, the Reds went back to the drawing board a bit with the 27-year-old. With an eye towards maximizing his athleticism, Cincinnati converted him into somewhat of a two-way player.
“It’s been fun. I’ve taken a little bit of a step back with opportunities. Through the flow of the season, we’ll see if more opportunities present itself. I had a lot more at bats last year than I’ve gotten this year, but we’ll see how this season goes,” Lorenzen said of this new approach.
So far in 2019, Lorenzen has been used in nine different ways by his club, appearing in 56 of the Reds’ 88 total games before the All-Star Break with 38 of those games being exclusively as a pitcher. Twice he was used as a pinch hitter and stayed on to pitch; once he came on to pitch and stayed in the game to play left field; six times he was used exclusively as an outfielder; six times he served merely as a pinch runner; and three times as a pinch runner and then outfielder.
It’s doubtful Márquez is in line for such a transition, but suffice to say, the Reds like Lorenzen not just as a hurler, but as a ballplayer, overall.
On Saturday, Lorenzen came in during the 7th inning to keep the score tight with the top of the Rockies order set to bat. He induced weak contact to Trevor Story, David Dahl and Nolan Arenado and retired the three in order to preserve the Reds lead. During the next half inning, Cincinnati scored five runs and Lorenzen remained in the game to bat even with 2018 All-Star Scooter Gennett waiting on the bench as a viable pinch hitter.
To date, Lorenzen has been far from the offensive output observed a season before. “This year, I’m more of a 1- 1 1/3 inning guy, so I don’t have many down days. Last year when I was down, I was the first bat off the bench, but now that I am a defender as well, I’m not the first guy off the bench bat-wise because they might need me later on to play defense. So it’s kind of tricky for them to figure out how to use me and get me at bats because of that situation,” he said of the current role that has only permitted Lorenzen with 9 at bats.
“Last year, I didn’t play any defense at all, really, so I would be the first guy off the bench. I was throwing more multiple innings to where I would have more days off, if I threw three innings. I did that quite a few times. If I threw three innings, the next two days would be down,” he elaborated.
Another major contributor to lack of opportunities is the current crop of talent around him with the Reds. Offseason acquisitions Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp – since released – as well as top prospect Nick Senzel improved the starting lineup for Cincinnati in 2019, helping fortify the bench with players some of the 2018 starters better suited for bench roles. “The guys we have coming off the bench have been pretty successful at doing it,” Lorenzen added.
Relatively new to pitching, the former Cal State Fullerton Titan played predominantly as a center fielder during his three years in the Big West Conference, accumulating 596 at bats in the process. He pitched early in his high school career, but took a two year hiatus and didn’t resume pitching until his sophomore year in college, at which point he was a thrower much more than a pitcher.
“I was drafted as a pitcher, but I only threw 40 innings in college. It was pretty new to me. I was a center fielder. I didn’t work on pitching at all in college. I just came in and threw it as hard as I could in college,” the first round pick said. All the more impressive was his rise through the minors, finishing his first pro season at Double-A and making his big league debut with only a year-and-a-half of minor league experience.
Though Lorenzon did not get an opportunity to patrol the large expanse of the Coors Field outfield, his eyes lit up at the thought, especially since all defensive reports on him have been positive so far. “That would be fun, for sure. It would be a good place to show it off.”
As for finishing behind German Márquez last year for the Silver Slugger Award, Lorenzen hoped his odds for becoming the first reliever to win the award would have increased. “I thought for sure that after last year I bought myself some more opportunity, but things happen and it just hasn’t come to fruition this year, yet. It certainly could. We still have half the season.”
Considering it wasn’t until game number 77 last year that Lorenzen hit his first homer to convince his squad for more of those opportunities, the latest two-way player may still have another late season push in him to take away the silver crown from El Bateador de Plata, German Márquez.
