St. Louis Cardinals: Real Prize of Jaime Garcia Trade is John Gant

The St. Louis Cardinals traded Jaime Garcia to the Atlanta Braves after the 2016 season and have landed a real prize in exchange.

John Gant was just one of the pieces received in the Jaime Garcia deal that sent the lefty from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Atlanta Braves. Now showing his great abilities, Gant is turning into the greatest prize landed in this deal.

Gant was not the only piece received from the Braves. He came with Luke Dykstra and Chris Ellis. Thus far in spring, fans have been able to watch Gant pitch in four games while neither Dykstra nor Ellis have participated in any activities to date.

For an in depth look at the Jaime trade, jump over and read Joseph’s news piece posted right after the news broke.

Now, let’s dive in and take a look at the prospect-to-watch, Gant. The 24-year-old Gant was drafted by the New York Mets in the twenty-first found of the 2011 amateur draft out of Wiregrass Ranch High School in Florida. He made his MLB debut last April and exceeded rookie expectations for the Braves.

Gant is a right-handed, 6’3″ 200-pound to-be starter who appeared in twenty games in 2016, started seven of these, and tossed fifty innings in these twenty games. He allowed fifty-four hits, twenty-seven earned runs, seven home runs, and twenty-one walks. In these fifty innings, he also struck out forty-nine batters. He closed 2016 with a 4.86 ERA.

This spring for the St. Louis Cardinals, now on the 40-man roster, Gant has appeared in eight innings. In these he has surrendered a mere three hits and simply one earned run. Amazing, right? He has also surrendered only one home run and zero walks all while striking out six batters.

Through these games, Gant owns an incredible 1.13 ERA, opposing batter’s average of .115, and an impressive 0.38 WHIP. In his eight games, Gant has started two of them. The idea from the St. Louis Cardinals’ perspective is to try him as a starter here in spring and then likely have him in the pen for long outings.

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Long outings, you ask? Could this right-hander take the place of injured Tyler Lyons? True, Lyons is a left-handed pitcher but was the primary and original thought-of long relief guy. Some plans had Trevor Rosenthal planned to be stretched but we are now seeing this fall to the side with the plan having him serve as the backup closer to Seung-hwan Oh.

Could Gant be the St. Louis Cardinals version of last year’s pen-master, Andrew Miller? For comparison value, Miller threw 74.1 innings in 2016 for a 1.45 ERA having allowed forty-two hits, twelve earned runs, nine walks, and recorded 123 strikeouts. Yes, 123.

Comparing the shut-down Miller in 2016 to the performance of Gant in 2016 is no comparison at all. But, when comparing 2016 Miller to what we are seeing this spring from Gant, there just might be something here.

It might be a little too early to draw these conclusions but the promise of them is certainly exciting, right? And should Gant live up to these expectation- or fall just a little under them- won’t he therefore be the best piece to come from shipping off Garcia? I certainly believe this to be the case.

Next: Time For Predictions

What do you think? Cardinals Nation should have a few additional chances to catch John Gant climbing the mound this spring, and, based on his performance in these appearances, it is likely that his place on the team will become clearer. Thanks for reading and GO CARDINALS!