Houston Astros: Tyler White should be moved to the bullpen

Houston Astros DH Tyler White has shown that he can work frames on the bump even though he’s not a pitcher by trade. Here’s why he should be in the pen.

Listen, Houston Astros fans. I know I’ve come up with some crazy ideas over the years. But with this idea about trying out Tyler White in the bullpen, I’m imploring you to stay with me on this one. I have some good reasons for it.

First, I think we can all agree that seeing Tyler White in the batter’s box this year has not been as glorious as we thought it would be. In fact, it has been far from it. So far, the shark is having one of his worst years at the major league level, slashing a disappointing .220/.313/.605 in 123 at-bats so far.

Not exactly what we have come to expect from him. But despite what the critics may say, there may be another area that he may be useful in — relief pitching. Here are some context stats to show you all what I’m talking about:

Tyler White Pitching Stats (Career – 4 total games and 3.2 innings pitched):

1. ERA – 9.82
2. WHIP – 1.36
3. Total Pitches – 69
4. Hits – 4
5. Runs – 4 (All earned)
6. Home Runs – 3
7. Walks – 1
8. Strikeouts – 2

Okay, at first glance, these are not really sexy numbers. That is, of course, until you focus specifically on what he has done so far in 2019. Then, it gets more and more interesting.

Tyler White Pitching Stats for 2019 (2 total games and 1.2 innings pitched):

1. ERA – 5.40
2. WHIP – 1.20
3. Total Pitches – 33
4. Hits – 1
5. Runs -1 (Earned)
6. Home Runs – 1
7. Walks – 1
8. Strikeouts – 2

What these particular stats say to me is that White is somehow working on mound delivery techniques. Should that be the case, there may be an alternate use for him in that regard. Just check out the following tweet, if you don’t want to trust me on this one:

A pitch such as the above hanging curveball that White throws could be a signature finishing pitch

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that rivals even that of Chris Devenski‘s circle of death change up. Granted, Devenski is much more the mound pro than White is. Still, that curve is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

It’s not out of the ordinary for some starting and relief pitchers to convert back and forth between the rotation and the pen. It is, however, rare for a position player to convert to a pitcher, though not completely impossible.

So could pitching coach Brent Strom have something to work with here in developing Tyler White into a solid reliever? I believe so. Will he ever be a setup man or closer? Absolutely not, because I’m not that naive to the situation.

Nevertheless, there may be something to this range of off-speed pitches that Tyler White possesses that can be tapped into as another way to help the Houston Astros along in their quest to #TakeItBack. This would be a great way to keep White around, while also calling up top prospect and minor league phenom, Yordan Alvarez as another bat.

Again, I state that as merely another option that I defer to AJ Hinch on, as all of us fans should. Whatever happens, our team is still in great shape, even with the injuries. So let’s keep the wagon trail moving, shall we?