St. Louis Cardinals: An Innovative Approach to Fixing the Bullpen

Addison Reed is a late-inning reliever with role versatility that would serve the St. Louis Cardinals very well.

Addison Reed should be a target for the St. Louis Cardinals as he is the youngest guy on this list – entering next season at age 29.  For some reason, Addison Reed is also incredibly underrated.

The guy, simply stated, gets outs.  He has a career 3.40 ERA, but the bulk of that ERA is inflated by his early years with the Chicago White Sox and Arizona.  He has been much better in his latest seasons with the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox.

Reed brings a career 9.5 strikeouts per nine and he does not walk a ton of guys.  However, Reed is prone to serving up the long ball at times.  The market has never valued Reed as highly as he probably should be, and that should help the St. Louis Cardinals get a discount on the contract.

My fellow writers peg Reed at somewhere around four years and around $45-50 million.  I think that assessment is largely based on his age.

I, for one, do not think he will get that much overall money.  Reed, in my opinion, may not even get that fourth year because he is not as overly dominant as some of the other names on this list.  I predict Reed will land a three-year, $30 million deal – just lower than the Holland deal.