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Since the Cardinals are in the reunion/nostalgia business how about a one year deal for Adam Ottavino? His 2023 numbers were ok with a 3.21 ERA, 1.216 WHIP, and a .208 BA Against. At age 38 he surely wouldn’t cost too much.
Robertson is off the board signs 1 year deal with Rangers for $11-$12 million according to ESPN…now the cardinals definitely need a relief pitcher but that deal is ridiculous based on how he pitched for the Marlins last year plus he is like 90 years old
Kittredge, Robertson, Fernandez, and O’Brien. Interesting that Bloom has had prior experience with all of them. The dark horse may be O’Brien.
Had a 2.29 ERA at AAA last season, with 86 Ks in 55 IP.The #STLCards have signed 30-year-old right-handed relief pitcher Josh James to a minor league contract for the 2024 season. Read about the hard-throwing ex-Astro at The Cardinal Nation. (free) https://t.co/clbrdUZWVr pic.twitter.com/MDCHUr2OqH
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 26, 2024
Mo should have just bulldozed the upper part of the system in bito the river and started from scratch.
Another reliever off of the board.
Adam Ottavino and the Mets are in agreement on a 1-yr, $4.5M contract pending physical.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) January 27, 2024
Phil Maton and Ryan Stanek are decent RH free agent relievers remaining.
Kenley Jansen may be available via trade but has a $16M price tag. The Cards won’t do that.
Pickings are starting to get pretty slim in the free agent reliever market…I have heard them connected to Maton earlier but nothing lately and the other name I heard was Ryan Brasier but that may have been in December.
I would guess Maton is around $5-6 million a year
https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/mlb/blown-saves-stats-most-blown-saves-teams-players-bm03/
According to the above site, the Cards’ relievers converted 36 of 64 save chances, or 56%, with 28 blown saves.
We can improve on the number of successfulo saves in several ways. The most obvious is to have more save opportunities. Then even with the same lousy save %, you get more saves. I think this might happen because Waino(2023), and his 5.0 innings per start, 1.9 WHIP, and 7.4 ERA will be gone. And unlike Waino, if someone else stinks it up any where near that bad, they will be booted out of the rotation, if not off the roster.
Another way to get more save opportunities is to score more runs. Management seems to be emphasizing offense more than defense, although with this bunch it is hard to tell. If we can get a lead, and do some clever late inning defensive replacement, there you have it. This might require a more experienced manager, but that is another post.
Finally, you can get more save opportunities if you have fewer blown ‘holds’, by your middle inning guys. How many times did you see guys trotted out there who were mired in pitching slumps, to pitch in tight games, and then they put a more or less hot reliever out there in mop up duty the next day? Again, manager and pitching coach quality comes into play.The team’s I’ve seen connected to Stanek are Cubs, Red Sox and Mets. Not sure Stanek is any great shakes, but who is?
Cubs, Red Sox Have Shown Reported Interest In Ryne Stanek https://t.co/jizVKGijZL pic.twitter.com/ioE2fKK2G1
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 26, 2024
Mets Interested In Ryne Stanek, Héctor Neris https://t.co/B2jdChwBPn pic.twitter.com/VBgg0M4710
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 24, 2024
The options seem to be Stanek, Maton, or Brasier. I guess Jesse Chavez is still an option too. All of them give some comfort as a 7th inning get the hold veteran who has experience doing just that, but none is discernibly better than what we have in-house. Just more experienced. So if we don’t have to give more than a 2-year deal, all of these make some sense at a reasonable price. But I’m also fine if we get none of them. I would rather have had Neris for 1 year and $9 million like the Cubs got him for.
We don’t need no stinking relievers. We have plentiful inning eaters. In a pinch I bet “Eddie” can help out the bullpen.
It’s been my experience that you could have Fingers, Sutter and Rivera as members of a relief corps and the BP would still be a touch and go proposition before the start of any given regular season. I’ve noticed that almst all BP’s undergo a sort of evolutionary process during the course of the first 30 to 40 games or so. When they develop into an effective weapon it’s a beautuiful thing. When they don’t it’s almost always a veritable nightmare of a season that can take it’s toll on things like end-table lamps, decorative vases and other types of home decor…I just keep my fingers crossed.
In a pinch I bet “Eddie” can help out the bullpen.
Nope, but Matt Carpenter can.
But I’m also fine if we get none of them.
That’s the beauty of limiting your targets to low altitude. Fans don’t get so PO’d when you have to tell them it just didn’t work out.
He’d have really helped out the BP if he could have prevented Segura’s bleeder from reaching the OF grass, but little Eddie couldn’t save us…
Interesting that the Astros let Neris, Stanek and Maton among others go and pooled their money for Hader…
Yeah, either those guys decided they wanted to leave or the Astros decided they weren’t worth it.
I did kind of wanted Neris. I don’t want Stanek. And I’m ho hum on Maton.
Overall, I think the bullpen is fine. It has tons of depth. Bullpens are kind of a crapshoot after the closer. So having lots of depth to see which ones float to the top is typically a good strategy. Would Maton be better than our 8th guy in the pen? Most likely. But he costs money and probably years of service and he doesn’t have any options. The options part I don’t like. So it’s fine if we get him and fine if we don’t. I seriously doubt he would make more than a 1 win difference.
The Astros have some pretty good reliever options at the AAA (Arighetti and Gordon)level where as the cardinals have very few options at AAA from what I saw last year
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