Denver – Colorado Rockies right-hander Eddie Butler is currently working out of the bullpen, but almost everyone has agreed Butler has earned the opportunity to start. The hard-throwing, highly-touted pitcher that has been up with the Rockies for parts of three seasons and despite the back-and-forth between the rotation and the bullpen this year, Butler has stuck.
Before this season, the former first-round pick had worked out of the bullpen only once in his professional career, and that was in his first pro appearance all the way back in rookie ball. Although Butler says he’s just happy to be at the big league level, it’s evident that he is more comfortable as a starter and is of more value to the Rockies taking the ball in the first inning than in the middle innings.
“My mentality is that I’m a starter,” Eddie Butler said. “But like I said, however I am here I’m happy with it. If it’s the long role this year I’m happy with it. I’m going to come in and done everything a starter does, try to find a routine, keep in that same rhythm every day.”
The reason Butler is in the bullpen is less about what he has or hasn’t done and more about the other pitchers’ performances on the club.
“We gave Tyler Anderson the start the other day because he had never done it,” Manager Walt Weiss explained. “To have to do it (work out of the bullpen) at this level makes it a little tough. We gave him the start, we wanted to see what it looks like. That was part of it, with Jorge De La Rosa we feel like he’s in a good place right now and he’s looked really good throwing the ball. Also, he’s a little out of his element coming out of the bullpen. Eddie hasn’t done a lot of it, but he’s done it a couple times for us this year. There is a lot of factors, but those are a few.”
Scouts and others alike have predicted Butler would actually perform better out of the bullpen long-term. Kiley McDaniel wrote when he was working at Fangraphs that this twice top-100 prospect would profile perfectly as a closer with his plus fastball and plus slider.
“I think he sprints well,” Weiss told. “We’ve seen it a few times where he comes in and throws a couple of innings. He’s handled that role very well. Things change pretty much daily around here. We didn’t label him bullpen guy but he is one as we sit here today.”
For now, Butler is not a permanent pen piece but in the short-term has had to make adjustments. See, the righty isn’t used to not knowing the day or time he is going to pitch so he has had to make an adjustment.
“The amount of time you get to get ready is different,” Butler told. “So trying to find a routine with that is something I struggle with, so trying to figure out how to get ready right… I talked a little bit to Darren Holmes about it, pretty much for me, it’s trying to get my arm going. When they get that phone call it’s like ‘here we go,’ toss three or four nice and easy then another six to eight and at that point your arm is getting going well and you start working on your off speed. Then you see Walt Weiss go out and you throw two more fastballs. That’s the way I’ve done it so far. Whether it’s the right way or wrong way or the way it stays or if it changes I have no idea. It’s worked out fairly well to this point. For me, my big thing is when I come on with runners on is to save those runs for the starters. I know how it feels when they give up a single and it was your run. I don’t want that for our starters, so I gotta come in and be lights out from the get-go.”
However, he does see the benefits of working as a reliever and how that can help him attack the opposition.
“A big thing is being in long relief is you probably only have to face the guys one time,” Butler described. “You kinda throw whatever you want at them, you don’t have to worry about trying to conceal anything. As a starter, you have to hold back a little bit velocity-wise. As a reliever you can go right at him (the hitter) and go ‘here is 95, here is my curveball, slider, changeup, whatever.'”
The entire issue of rotation or reliever could have clouded the minds of many. It is fair to ask if Butler’s development as a 25-year-old pitcher has been hindered. To him, it’s not about where he’s working as long as he is getting the work.
But Bulter feels as though he has been improving, “definitely.”
“We have been really working on attacking hitters, getting ahead and the differences in the swings they take are night and day. When they’re in a power position versus being a defensive one. That’s the big thing I’ve done this year. And throwing my off-speed for strikes has been better than in the past,” he says.
The Rockies’ abundance of starting pitching could turn Butler into a bullpen guy long-term, but as of now his role is on hold, as the Rockies just want to keep Butler in the big leagues. He’s earned that.
