The Pittsburgh Pirates rotation depth has been tested in the first week of the 2015 season as Francisco Liriano has been placed on the paternity leave list. Starting in his place on Sunday will be Casey Sadler.
Liriano is missing his start as his daughter will be born. Liriano is expected to return to the Pirates and make his next start on Wednesday. This will be the first start in Sadler’s major league career.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle weighed his options when determining who would start Sunday and the two other pitchers that received consideration were Nick Kingham and Clayton Richard. Richard has been spending time in extended Spring Training and Kingham has not had any major league experience.
While Sadler has not logged a start in Triple-A Indianapolis this season, he did make six appearances out of the Pirates bullpen last season. The appearances were not in high-leverage situations, however it gave Sadler something to build on.
Sadler went into Spring Training this season with the Pirates fully invested in him being a starter. Sadler matched the ground ball type profile the Pirates appreciate. The Pirates pride themselves on defense and led all of baseball in shifts last season, something that could benefit the right-handed pitcher.
In his relief appearances with the Pirates last season, Sadler used his sinker 77.64 percent of the time with his slider was the second most frequent pitch used at 16.77 percent. A four-seam fastball and a change up are the other listed pitches in his arsenal.
Sadler posted a 1-1 record with a 3.24 ERA in four games, three of which were starts. In two abbreviated starts against the Toronto Blue Jays, Sadler did not allow a run. Sadler pitched 8.1 innings in the spring and held hitters to a .194 batting average.
Sadler did make a relief appearance against his Sunday opponent, the Milwaukee Brewers last season. In two innings, Sadler allowed two runs on two hits while walking and striking out a batter apiece in 26 pitches. According to ESPN, none of the current Brewers on the 25-man roster have a hit against Sadler.
Photo credit: USA Today
