PORT CHARLOTTE — If Matt Andriese had a team-issued business card it would read: Multi-inning/high-leverage relief pitcher. But before handing it to you, he would take a pen and add one more role: starting pitcher.
Andriese considers himself all of those, but truth be told, he still views himself as a starter at the big-league level no matter what tag the team has applied to him.
"For now," he said, "I'll be considered a hybrid."
And an important one to a bullpen that will be taxed this season with a built-in bullpen day when the schedule becomes crowded enough for a fifth starter, Nate Eovaldi — whose innings will be carefully monitored during his return from Tommy John surgery — and Blake Snell and Jake Faria, a pair of young pitchers who will surely encounter more growing pains.