St. Louis Cardinals: Five potential break out players in 2016

5. Seung-hwan Oh

What do you say we start off with the new guy? Seung-hwan Oh, a.k.a “The Final Boss” a.k.a “Stone Buddha” was officially signed on today to a one-year deal with a club option for 2017. The legendary 33-year-old Korean closer will be making his first venture into Major League Baseball.

Regarded as potentially the greatest Korean closer of all-time, Oh has 357 career saves playing in Korea and Japan. Over 646 1/3 innings, Oh recorded 772 strikeouts and sported a 1.81 ERA.

Oh’s repertoire is said to feature a mid-90’s fastball, a sharp slider, and a slow, rolling curveball. While it will certainly be an adjustment facing Major League hitters for the first time, Oh should be able to lean on his plus fastball, that would be made much better if he commands both of his secondary pitches.

Look for Oh to start out in a middle-relief role and work towards becoming a back-end of the bullpen arm for St. Louis. Depending on the health of Jordan Walden as well as the effectiveness of Jonathan Broxton and the rest of those power arms in the St. Louis pen, Oh could very easily find himself in an 8th inning role as a setup man for Trevor Rosenthal.

Next: Sam Tuivailala