St. Louis Cardinals: Trevor Rosenthal’s future

I asked a roundtable of St. Louis Cardinals writers about the Cards closer and his future.

Does Trevor Rosenthal remain a Cardinals closer? That was the basis of my Q&A with the United Cardinal Bloggers roundtable on Wednesday. I asked a select group of Cards scribes the following questions:

*What are your Trevor Rosenthal projections this year? And moving forward….

*Do you expect the Cards to give him a multi year deal after the season?

*Does he remain a closer for his entire career?

At first, it may appear easy to answer and after a few seconds of thought, one pauses and thinks otherwise. Here are the responses.

From Daniel Shoptaw(Cards Conclave, @C70):

Well, to the latter point, most likely the answer is no. Very few closers don’t lose their job somewhere along the way, especially as they get older. Look at Jonathan Broxton, for example. I never expect Rosenthal to go back to the starting rotation and he’ll be a closer for a good long while, but to say he’ll never pitch anywhere but the end of the game seems problematic.

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As for what he’ll do this year, even though Wainwright says he’ll buy him a golf cart if he gets to 60 saves, that’s Wainwright not wanting to shell out two years in a row. We don’t need to see Rosenthal out there often enough to get that many tally marks.

I’ll say that, given his increased command, we’ll see him line up about 40 saves, blow about 5, have a WHIP around 1.2 and an ERA around 2.30 or so, and basically be that reliable guy at the end of the game that we saw last year. Much less gnashing of teeth when Cracklin’ Rosie makes his appearance.

I’m pretty surprised the Cards didn’t lock him up this offseason. In fact, when the news broke there’d be announcement today, I expected it to be him rather than Kolten Wong. I think at some point, either during the season or after, he’ll get a three year deal that will buy out the last two arbitration years and his first year of free agency.

Next: More Rosenthal gravy in 2016