As Beyond the Boxscore points out, the Marlins have been very adept at building bullpens out of spare parts recently, and Nate Robertson might be their latest convert. Considering he’s likely to be mostly free for the Marlins, it might make sense to turn Robertson into a lefty specialist.
Marlins May Use Newly-Acquired Robertson In The Bullpen
But Robertson has continued to do one thing well throughout his career, and that’s dominate left-handed hitters. Robertson has faced over 1,100 lefties in his career, posting a 3.34 FIP and 3.49 xFIP against them, compared to 5.21 and 4.72 marks against righties, respectively. Against left-handers, he misses more bats, walks less guys, and induces more groundballs, making for a significantly better pitcher all-around.
Now, Robertson’s been durable and he was good enough to post WARs between 1.9 and 2.6 each year for a four-year span as a starter in Detroit. But with that kind of domination against left-handers, it seems that Robertson could make for one damn good lefty specialist. And for a team whose best left-handed relievers are Renyel Pinto and Dan Meyer, having another high-quality option around would be pretty smart.
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