St. Louis Cardinals: Brandon Waddell excels in first outing

The St. Louis Cardinals are mixing things up in the bullpen and Brandon Waddell looked good in his first appearance with the club.

It seems the St. Louis Cardinals can’t go too long without having someone in Tyler Webb’s archetype at the MLB level.

After the “fan favorite” Webb was DFA’d earlier this year, the Cardinals eventually claimed lefty reliever Brandon Waddell off waivers. The 27-year-old Waddell has had a bit of whirlwind of a 2021, as the St. Louis Cardinals are his fourth jersey of the year.

After debuting with Pittsburgh in 2020, Waddell has seen time in Toronto, Baltimore, and Minnesota in 2021 before joining St. Louis. The lefty reliever was brought in as depth, and after a short time at AAA Memphis, Waddell was brought up and thrown straight into the action on Tuesday.

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Mopping up the 9th inning with a six-run lead, Waddell struck out two and walked one in his first inning in St. Louis. When considering his performance, one does have to look at the opponent (the Diamondbacks) and the score, however, there is no reason not to acknowledge a good thing when it happens. For St. Louis Cardinals fans, good things have felt few and far between since the start of June.

The team’s 8-17 record this month is bad enough on its own, but when you consider that the bulk of the schedule has been against some of the worst teams in the MLB, it stings all the more.

As president of baseball operations John Mozeliak says, the Cardinals are looking for the “right mix” of players to come together and click. The newest group that includes Wade LeBlanc and Webb clone Brandon Waddell have an immaculate record over just one game in the limelight against the worst team in baseball.

The Cardinals aren’t done, they just need to take things one pitch, one inning, one game, and one win at a time.