St. Louis Cardinals: Waiver arms the Cards should consider claiming

The St. Louis Cardinals could use an arm in the pen who could carry a load of innings should a game need it.

This season, the St. Louis Cardinals have turned to Tyler Lyons for long-relief when pitchers like Adam Wainwright and Michael Wacha have exited games early. Joining Lyons, Mike Mayers has bounced between St. Louis and Memphis to fill in this role as well.

Laying out on the waiver wire is right-handed relief arm Yusmeiro Petit. Petit could immediately fill in the Mayers role with much more dominance and a greater amount of MLB experience.

Should the Cardinals believe that Mayers is not the long-relief solution in the pen from the right side, then Petit is the way to go.

Petit is having a great season in 2017 for the Los Angeles Angels. He is commanding a 2.39 ERA through 67.2 innings pitched. In addition, he has recorded 74 strikeouts while only surrendering 13 walks.

Starting on July 21, 2017, Petit went on a six-game stretch of multi-inning appearances. He pitched two innings, three innings, four innings, then three appearances of two innings pitched. In these six outings, Petit has surrendered 12 hits but allowed only two runs.

With the aging core of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation, a long pen arm like Petit would be a nice addition. Moreover, Petit would be very inexpensive for the Cardinals as he is a free-agent-to-be who is owed the remaining balance of his $2.25M contract.

If he were to come to St. Louis and show the same abilities that he is showing in Los Angeles, the Cardinals would be wise to attempt to sign Petit beyond 2017. This should be considered and a 2017 claim should be made right away as Petit could help in 2018 as well with the likes of the return of Alex Reyes and supposed rise of Luke Weaver— a lengthening arm could be necessary.