By Jordan Long
This past weekend, the St. Louis Cardinals added a pitcher to their bullpen. Reliever Brett Cecil agreed to a 4-year $30.5 million contract with a full no-trade clause. The deal is pending his passing a physical. How will this help the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen?
The St. Louis Cardinals went 86-76 this past season. They missed the playoffs by one game. The New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants won the Wild Card spots. The bullpen was respectable. When the relievers came in, they shut the door on opponents from scoring with an ERA of 3.62. That was decent but the problem was they gave up too many home runs with 56. The Cardinals thought in order to be an improved ball club, they must address the bullpen.
Cecil is an upgrade in the pen. Last season for the Toronto Blue Jays, he appeared in 54 games. His ERA was 3.93 with 45 strikeouts. Cecil’s record was 1-7 with 6 home runs and 4 blown saves.
The Cardinals needed to make this move. Cecil was one of the best relievers in free agency. He will come into games in later innings, striking batters out to help St. Louis win more games this upcoming season and maybe make the playoffs as the Wild Card team.
The only downside is how many home runs Cecil gives up. He leaves the ball up in the zone. Hitters key on that and hit it out of the ballpark. Cecil must work on his control and focus on leaving the ball down in the zone.
The St. Louis Cardinals are well on their way to returning to the postseason with this move. They are starting to close the gap on the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. St. Louis must add more arms to the bullpen, especially middle relievers. It is a solid start but hopefully more moves are on the way to enhance the bullpen the rest of the winter.
What do you think of St. Louis inking a deal with Brett Cecil?
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