Kary Booher

News-Leader

His story probably has them all beat: Cut from his high school team as a freshman, fortunate to hook on later with a little-known Florida juco and quietly slipped into the minor leagues as a draft pick from the 41st round — which doesn’t exist anymore.

Left-handed reliever Kevin Siegrist, who last season opened with Double-A Springfield and finished in the World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals, cracked a smile Saturday in thinking back to those days.

“It used to drive me when I was in the minor leagues,” Siegrist said, “knowing that you had the stuff to compete with guys from the first 10 rounds.”

Now the 6-foot-4 standout is driven by what you’d expect — he badly wants to rejoin the parent club soon and reclaim a role as a lock-down, late-inning reliever.

First, however, is an injury rehab assignment, and his opening salvo was a scheduled, 17-pitch outing in Springfield’s 8-0 win against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. A Hammons Field crowd of 6,604 gave him a nice round of applause when he took the mound.

“I feel like I could be what I used to be, a late-inning guy to get the ball to (Trevor) Rosenthal and face righties and lefties,” said Siegrist, disabled since May 24 because of a left forearm strain and later delayed over a nerve issue in his pitching shoulder. “You can use me in a whole bunch of different situations. But as of now they’re doing a real good job. We’ll see what happens.”

Think he wants to get there badly? He left no doubt in walking off the mound after issuing a second walk. Siegrist appeared to jaw with the plate umpire, only to offer a diplomatic response later when asked about the scene.

“I just asked him where the last pitch was,” Siegrist said with a sheepish grin. “It was fine.”

Siegrist’s fastball hummed in the mid-90 mph range in facing four batters, two righties and two lefties. Walks were sandwiched around his best stuff: In between, he ran a two-strike fastball on the outside corner for strike three against a lefty. An inside fastball tied up the next batter’s hands, leading to an easy pop-up to second base.

Something notable: Siegrist worked from the third-base side of the rubber, a strategy employed here last season on the advice of Springfield pitching coach Randy Niemann, a former big-league lefty.

As a result, it allows Siegrist to run his fastball deeper inside against right-handers and get chase pitches away, a terrific combination. A year ago, he reached St. Louis on June 6 and proceeded to strike out 50 in 39 2/ 3 regular-season innings and had a 0.45 earned run average.

“It’s great for everybody (here) to see somebody who was just last year in this clubhouse and who now not only is in the big leagues but has established himself as a big-leaguer,” Niemann said. “That helps them understand how close they really are.”

For Siegrist, it’s been a long haul since being drafted in 2008. At one point, he was demoted to rookie-level Johnson City, Tenn., and didn’t reach Double-A until 2012.

But he took off after being relocated to the bullpen last season, commanding his fastball and improving his slider, and eventually made four appearances in the World Series. He’s tried not to pinch himself since.

“I was thinking that the whole offseason. It was just an amazing experience,” Siegrist said, and noted that he has applied lessons learned from last year.

“It was confidence-wise, knowing you can go out there and have a difference in the game,” Siegrist said. “Last year, you pitch in the World Series and face big-time batters and just build up confidence. This season, I’m just trying to be consistent.”