St. Louis Cardinals: Plan-B for the 2018 Cardinals

How would the St. Louis Cardinals adjust their plans should a catastrophe strike the bullpen?

St. Louis Cardinals’ Plan-B: If it ain’t one of the kids, pray that Addison Reed, Wade Davis, Brandon Morrow, Bryan Shaw, Alex Colome, Greg Holland, and Juan Nicasio all have terrible seasons while waiting for the St. Louis Cardinals’ own Henry Rowengartner to show up in the bleachers one day and say “I told you so!”

Bullpens and their inherent volatility mean they’re always going to be heavily scrutinized. Yet, in 2018, that could prove to be doubly true for Mozeliak, manager Mike Matheny, and new pitching coach Mike Maddux after the front office has doubled down on their bevy of young arms. When someone gets hurt or underperforms this year, Mo and Co. will rely on safety in numbers to fix the problem.

Y’know, the thing they said they weren’t gonna do when the offseason began…

If anointed-closer Luke Gregerson, late inning revelation Tyler Lyons, or newly-acquired Dominic Leone go down, the Cardinals will be hoping that a late-inning monster will emerge from the likes of Jordan Hicks, Ryan Helsley, or Dakota Hudson.

If not, they’re putting a lot of stock in a Brett Cecil bounce-back, a Sam Tuivailala ascension, or a graduation from John Brebbia, Matthew Bowman, or Ryan Sherriff.

The answer for a bullpen crisis, though, could be the same as that of the starting rotation: Alex Reyes. Ideally, Reyes would prepare for the workload of a starter by popping triple digits in the late innings for a few months, but what if he’s needed sooner than that? He can’t be the savior of both the rotation and the bullpen, can he? Wait, can he? No. Sometimes I write crazy things…