Cincinnati Reds: How should Michael Lorenzen be used as a two-way player?

The Cincinnati Reds are looking to utilize the special talents of one of their relievers to maximize his roster spot.

On Thursday, Bobby Knightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Cincinnati Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen is “regularly hitting in batting cages and doing drills in the outfield as he hopes to convince the new coaching staff for a bigger role.” With the success of two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani and the greater need for roster flexibility in the game, there is speculation that more teams could try to use players on both sides of the ball.

Lorenzen seems like a perfect candidate to be a two-way guy. He has been a valuable piece out of the Reds bullpen in the past few years, but he hasn’t been a superstar by any stretch. Teams would be much more hesitant to use an extremely valuable player on the other side of the ball given the injury risk.

The Reds gave Lorenzen 34 plate appearances in 2018, which is about 34 more than an average reliever gets, even in the National League. He capitalized on his opportunities, hitting four home runs, three of which came in the same week at the end of June. Still, 34 plate appearances are too few to make any strong conclusions about, so it’s not clear if Lorenzen will actually be an offensive contributor if he gets more opportunities.

But if the Cincinnati Reds do try to use Lorenzen as a two-way player, what would be the best way to use him? When Ohtani was pitching, the Los Angeles Angels used him as the designated hitter on some of the days that he wasn’t the starting pitcher. But Lorenzen, being a relief pitcher in the National League, has the opportunity to be used in many more unique ways.

It’s possible that the Reds could start Lorenzen in the outfield and bring him in to pitch at any point during a game, potentially even using him as a pitcher at separate points of the game. Maybe the best way for the Reds to use Lorenzen would be to use him as an opener for the first one or two innings before playing the rest of the game in the outfield. This way, he would have a better idea of when he would pitch in a given game and warm up accordingly.

The Reds could effectively make Lorenzen two different players, playing him in the field some days and making him available out of the bullpen on others. This might lessen some of the injury risk, but it would also hurt his impact out of the bullpen. What makes a fireman like Lorenzen effective out of the bullpen is that he is able to log multiple innings at any time in close games. If he were unavailable to pitch on certain days, he would likely miss the opportunity to pitch in some high-leverage moments.

At this point, it’s unclear whether the Cincinnati Reds will even allow Michael Lorenzen to play in the outfield in 2019. It’s a complete unknown whether Lorenzen could be a passable defensive outfielder, and the Reds certainly wouldn’t be willing to take a big hit on defense just to get Lorenzen more at-bats. But if everything works out, the Reds could have a unique asset that would give their team more flexibility on a daily basis.