photo: Jake Woodford (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Jake Woodford has been one of the more impressive pitchers in the early going in St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training Camp. In nine innings over three outings, the right-hander has allowed just one run. Most recently, he threw four shutout innings in a start against the Yankees on Wednesday.
Even so, the 26-year-old is not assured of any job with the Cardinals coming out of camp, with a rotation spot almost impossible to achieve right now. If he does not make the team, it would be a continuation of his uncertain big-league status over the last three seasons. In his career to date, Woodford has made 55 relief appearances and just 10 starts for St. Louis.
Most recently, in 2022, Woodford was optioned out three times and toggled between starting for Memphis and relieving for St. Louis. When given a chance, he performed well, logging a 2.23 ERA/3.13 FIP in 27 Cardinals outings, all but one coming out of the bullpen.
As noted, the prospect of the sinker-slider specialist receiving an extended opportunity to start in the majors in the near term is murky at best. The club has six veteran starting pitchers vying for the rotation and a seventh candidate, Matthew Liberatore, is also off to a nice start in 2023. In his rookie 2022 campaign, the lefty made seven starts and two relief appearances.
Though close to three weeks still remain in camp, at this point, everyone seems healthy. The Cardinals have enough incumbents on hand to potentially fill all 13 roster spots that are expected to be allocated to pitching.
So even if Woodford continues to be among the best 13 pitchers this spring, because he has minor league options when many others do not, he may not make the team initially.
The Opening Day roster is perceived by many to carry greater importance than it really has. The depth needed to get through a long season may open in Triple-A, but it won’t stay there.
The best route for Woodford to take from here may depend on what his long-term role will be – starter or reliever.
If Woodford is going to continue to compete to be a major league starter, then he will almost certainly begin 2023 back in Triple-A. There, he would likely vie with Liberatore and/or Dakota Hudson for spots in the St. Louis rotation when they invariably come open during the season.
However, if he makes the big-league club as a long reliever, Woodford may will not get the opportunity to start for St. Louis later in the season. An exception would be a spot start in a bullpen game.
But usually, the Cardinals want starters who can deliver at least five innings, which a long reliever is not equipped to do unless he first goes down to the minors and builds up his workload.
And many times, the starter-turned-reliever proves to be too valuable out of the big-league pen to justify the long period away that would be needed in the minors to build up.
All one has to do is look to Zack Thompson and Andre Pallante last season. Both came up as successful minor league starters but have primarily been relievers with St. Louis. Due to numbers, they seem destined to remain in the Cardinals’ bullpen for the foreseeable future.
So, if Woodford is slated to be a long reliever from the start of the season, then he could end up staying in that role. If he can remain with St. Louis, great, but another risk is that he gets stuck in the same routine as in 2022 – starting in Triple-A but relieving in the Majors – then getting sent down when the roster is tight. This is not an ideal usage pattern for any hurler.
But the Cardinals are relatively short in proven right-handed depth, potentially increasing their motivation to use Woodford out of the pen. Youngsters Jake Walsh (2 2/3 career MLB innings) and Freddy Pacheco (yet to debut and already sent out this spring) are the only two 40-man roster righties seemingly destined to open 2023 in Triple-A.
On the other hand, if Woodford’s future continues to include starting, it may be best for him to return to the Memphis rotation, pitch every fifth day and compete to receive the next rotation callup to St. Louis.
What would be best for the Cardinals and what would be best for Woodford? It remains to be seen if they are the same or different and if the answer changes during the season.
All Woodford can do is to continue to accrue outs every chance he is given the ball.
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