photo: Adam Kloffenstein (Jonathan Chan/Centennial College)
In the final hours leading up to the trade deadline, the St. Louis Cardinals fortified the upper levels of their minor league system by adding six minor league pitchers in return for impending free agents.
The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and St. Louis Cardinals president John Mozeliak and his staff accomplished nearly everything they set out to do as sellers. They utilized their pending free agents to strengthen the minors with an eye toward free agency and trades in the off season. The retooling for 2023 has already brought some potentially exciting returns.
St. Louis should get high marks for what they managed to accomplish and the way they executed their plan. Once Mozeliak and company decided they were sellers, they set the plan into motion. The deadline deals may have been one of the best examples of trading players without burning bridges. From what I have read, Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, and Jordan Hicks could be amenable to returning to the Birds on the Bat if the numbers work out after the season is over. The Cardinals tried to get the math to work prior to the trade deadline but the parties could not pull it off. In the end, they might still get one, two or all three of their pitching free agents back in the offseason and still have the acquired boatload of prospects, focused on pitching.
The success of the Cardinals retooling to improve depends primarily on their ability to determine if the quality pitching they seek will come from this group of prospects or if they will be more valuable as trade bait in the offseason.
Tekoah Roby, Adam Kloffenstein, and Sem Robberse appear to be arms that excite most people and with good reason. These three pitchers have been well-written about with regards to their fastballs and potential. Roby, with a fastball in the mid 90’s and what has been described as a north, south knee buckling curveball in the low 80’s, appears to be the cream of the crop here. The big question is his injured shoulder. If it is not too serious, he could be in the St. Louis rotation as soon as late next season.
Kloffenstein is a pitcher you must like. First, he is a 21-year-old, 6’5” 240-pound right-hander. His arsenal features a fastball in the low 90’s that allows him to consistently retire hitters via both the strikeout and the groundball. At Double-A for Toronto, he accrued a respectable 3.24 ERA through 17 starts with 105 strikeouts in 89 innings of work.
Robberse, at 21 years old, is an intriguing prospect. A native of the Netherlands, he pitched in the 2023 Futures Game facing three hitters allowing two hits and striking out one on a 3-2 breaking ball. One has to like the confidence to throw a 3-2 breaking ball for a strike and not your 90-plus mph fastball. In July alone, the right-hander went 3-0 in his four starts with 21 1/3 innings. He posted 20 strikeouts against seven walks and had a 2.53 ERA.
Rounding out the pitching prospects, the Cardinals also added left-handers Drew Rom and John King plus righty Matt Svanson who at Double A has amassed 39 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings.
King has major league experience and has been assigned to St. Louis. In 87 career outings, King has struck out 89 in 127 1/3 innings. The 10th round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2017, the 28-year-old has a career 4.25 ERA.
Rom, like his right-handed counterpart Zack Showalter, is young and presents lots of potential. Both came to St. Louis from the Orioles organization. Rom had a 7-6 record with a 5.34 ERA in 18 starts at Triple-AAA Norfolk since April. At 23, he has built a career record of 32-15 with a 3.79 ERA through his five years of minor league ball.
Showalter may have the most upside of the former Baltimore trio. At 19 years old, he is just into his first full year in the minors, splitting time between the rookie league and A-Ball. Sporting a 2.37 ERA in nine appearances with eight starts, Showalter has struck out 41 in 30 1/3 innings. He has given up just one long ball.
St. Louis appears to be in much better shape heading into 2023 offseason thanks to some shrewd wheeling and dealing. Whether they keep pitchers like Roby and Kloffenstein or dangle them as trade bait for a more established starter is the question but for now hats off to John Mozeliak and his team for designing a plan and executing it for the betterment of the organization.
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