Cardinals’ veteran closer Trevor Rosenthal might be taking his career to the next level with a position in the starting rotation.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the team is looking to see if Rosenthal could transition from closer/reliever to a starter.
Before this season, Cardinals fans would likely not have believed it, he was an ace closer. The 26 year old gave us 48 saves in 2015 and 45 saves in 2014. 2016 was a much different season, he struggled with a tear in his forearm early on and then lost his closing spot to Seung Hwan Oh. That being said, he still earned 14 saves this season, pitching 40.1 innings.
Pitching is definitely something that the franchise could work on for the 2017 season. St. Louis Post-Dispatch listed the pitching rotation as Adam Wainwright, Mike Leake, Carlos Martinez and a hopefully healthy Lance Lynn, along with Alex Reyes. Michael Wacha had some trouble with injuries last season, but will likely get some starts if he can keep his arm in good shape.
The Cardinals did exercise their option on Jaime Garcia, though no one is quite sure what he will be doing next season. There are some rumors of trying to shop him around, but he might still find himself on the mound in a St. Louis uniform. That is still to be decided as we begin the offseason.
Matheny told Rosenthal that he’s going to have a chance to try his hand at starting. The team will be looking to see how he performs next to those in the rotation.
The rotation is always changing, so who knows? Depending on how he performs these next few months, we might just see Rosenthal starting a game instead of finishing it.
