JUPITER, Fla. • This Cardinals reliever doesn’t have a big name (Andrew Miller) or a big arm (Jordan Hicks) or a big contract (Brett Cecil). John Brebbia doesn’t even have a big beard anymore. He just, simply, makes big moments seem small.
Which begs the question: Why isn’t Brebbia used even more? At 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings, he had the highest K-rate of any Cards reliever last year but made six different trips to Triple-A. Brebbia still managed to pitch 50 2/3 innings in the majors with a 3.20 ERA, but this is a guy who deserves to be a guy routinely in high-leverage situations, many of which he makes seem routine.