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The winter meetings are well underway. There are a lot of rumors flying. At the time of this writing, the Cardinals have not yet made a move.
I’m using the OPS+ metric to measure pitching performance. It’s very similar to OPS+. 100 is league average. Every point above or below 100 represents 1% above or below league average. I’m also sharing each pitcher’s WHIP and K/9 rate.
Before I get into this, I just want to say that you never ever can have too much pitching. I strongly advocate for acquiring starting and relief pitching. Let’s see what’s currently on the roster and their respective 2022 performances.
Starting Pitchers
Miles Mikolas ERA+ 116, WHIP 1.033, K/9 6.8
Adam Wainwright ERA+ 103, WHIP 1.283, K/9 6.7
Jordan Montgomery ERA+ 111, WHIP 1.093, K/9 8.0
Dakota Hudson ERA+ 86, WHIP 1.446, K/9 5.0
Jack Flaherty ERA+ 91, WHIP 1.611, K/9 8.3
Steven Matz ERA+ 73, WHIP 1.250, K/9 10.1
Matthew Liberatore ERA+ 65, WHIP 1.731, K/9 7.3
Only 3 of the starting pitchers presently on the roster performed at level at or above league average. It’s clear to me that this team needs to add at least one starting pitcher. Bringing back Jose Quintana (OPS+ 137) would be a very good move. If not Q, they need to find someone.
Bullpen
Ryan Helsley ERA+ 306, WHIP 0.742, K/9 13.1
Andre Pallante ERA+ 121, WHIP 1.417, K/9 6.1
Jordan Hicks ERA+ 79, WHIP 1.321, K/9 9.2
Giovanny Gallegos ERA+ 126, WHIP 1.017, K/9 11.1
Genesis Cabrera ERA+ 83, WHIP 1.321, K/9 6.4
Jake Woodford ERA+ 172, WHIP 1.117, K/9 4.5
Zack Thompson ERA+ 186, WHIP 0.981, K/9 7.0
Packy Naughton ERA+ 81, WHIP 1.438, K/9 8.7
Chris Stratton ERA+ 95, WHIP 1.532, K/9 8.5
Drew VerHagen ERA+ 58, WHIP 1.892, K/9 7.5
JoJo Romero ERA+ 81, WHIP 1.408, K/9 9.4
James Naile ERA+ 80, WHIP 1.111, K/9 5.0
Jake Walsh ERA+ 32, WHIP 1.875, K/9 16.9
This shows that the Cardinals definitely need bullpen help. Ryan Helsley was unbelievably dominant. Zack Thompson has emerged as a good left handed reliever. Jake Woodford did a very nice job. Giovanny Gallegos and Andre Pallante were okay as well. Beyond that, they don’t have much. If Genesis Cabrera can regain his pre2022 form, a Thompson/Cabrera LH combo would be pretty good. If Cabrera does not regain form, they’ll be counting on improvement from Packy Naughton and/or JoJo Romero. They will also be counting on Jordan Hicks to finally regain form. The team needs to find help here. I’m not comfortable with this bullpen.
The Cardinals have a history of being very cautious in the free agent market. I don’t know what to predict. Being pragmatic, we aren’t going to see them acquire everything we think they need. Hopefully, whatever they will do will be enough.
