St. Louis Cardinals: The bullpen has reached a new high

The bullpen of the St. Louis Cardinals has been the team’s strength all season. With another minor change just made, this could be the best it’s been yet.

While the St. Louis Cardinals‘ pitching rotation hasn’t been much to write home about, the bullpen has been one of the best in baseball. The team’s recent swap of Adalberto Mejia for Junior Fernandez could make it even better.

The bullpen has been in good hands with Giovanny Gallegos, John Gant, John Brebbia and Andrew Miller all doing well. Gallegos has performed the best out of them, posting ridiculous numbers like a 2.09 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 51.2 innings. Gant, Brebbia and Miller haven’t been as spectacular, but they have been solid throughout most of the season.

Carlos Martinez has also done well in the closer’s role, earning 11 saves in 13 opportunities after taking over for the injured Jordan Hicks. The other two pitchers occupying the bullpen besides Fernandez are Tyler Webb and Ryan Helsley. Webb has been adequate, but he hasn’t reached the heights of many of the other bullpen pieces this year. Still, he has served as a competent reliever.

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Helsley only has 15.1 innings in the major leagues, but while the 10 walks are a bit of a concern, he has also done pretty well, pitching to a 2.35 ERA. But Fernandez could be the one to put the bullpen over the top.

While most of the Cardinals’ prospects have taken steps back this year, Fernandez has been excellent. The 22-year-old pitched at three different minor league levels and impressed at every stop, with a 1.47 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 61.1 innings. He also allowed only 10 earned runs.

The Cardinals haven’t been great recently at acquiring relief pitchers; Dominic Leone, Chasen Shreve, Luke Gregerson and Greg Holland are pitchers acquired in the last two years who have not lived up to expectations, and in the case of Gregerson and Holland, are no longer with the team. Because of this less-than-stellar job at trading for bullpen arms, promoting from within the system seems to be the best bet.

If Fernandez can perform in the majors as he has in the minors, the Cardinals could be a truly dominant team when it’s a bullpen battle. But the starters need to do their parts to let the bullpen perform and not just serve as mop-up men, and that has been a struggle at times, especially in the Michael Wacha/Daniel Ponce de Leon revolving door for the fifth starting spot.

Yesterday’s loss to the Dodgers was a tough break for the bullpen, but in all, the bullpen has been a huge strength for the team this year.

At the very least, it’s hard to image Fernandez will perform worse than Mejia did in his three innings with the team, allowing eight hits and three earned runs. The bullpen could be stronger than ever now with Fernandez’s arrival but the Cardinals need to give it some support for it to truly be threatening.