Cardinals sign minor league reliever with some promise

The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Tuesday that they agreed to a minor league deal with right-handed pitcher Michael Gomez. Gomez, 28, most recently spent time in the Tampa Bay Rays minor league system. He will receive an invite to Spring Training.

Gomez attended California State Polytechnic University, and he made his minor league debut in 2018 with the Philadelphia Phillies rookie ball team. He ascended relatively quickly in 2019, reaching High-A within the Phillies' system. After the minor league season was restarted in 2021, Gomez found himself with the New York Yankees.

Gomez would play for the Yankees' Double-A and Triple-A squads from 2021 through 2023. He most recently played for the Tampa Bay Rays' Triple-A squad in 2024. He finished 2024 with a 5.01 ERA in 55.2 innings of relief.

What makes Gomez an interesting player would be his strikeout numbers. He struck out 11 batters per nine innings last year, and he's hit a rate as high as 11.6 batters per nine innings in his career in the minors. Gomez has done a good job at limiting home runs (0.81 HR/9 last year), but his walk rates have been a bit high in the past, 2024 excluded.

The hope is that Gomez found the touch with the Tampa Bay Rays last year given his 27.8% strikeout rate and his 9% walk rate. He generates a decent amount of swing-and-miss with his 12% swinging strike rate.

Gomez is likely organizational depth at this point, but he provides a nice floor should one or more relievers be traded this offseason. Additionally, if the Cardinals don't intend on spending money in free agency, Gomez is a cheap alternative given his minor league contract.

Gomez's signing presents shades of Riley O'Brien's signing last offseason. Both pitchers are cheap and have high strikeout potential, something the organization has been searching to add to its pitching depth for a few years now. While Michael Gomez is not a big-name player, he has decent stuff that could play in a particular role in the bullpen.

A bullpen should not necessarily be built around stars or via free agency; that can become costly for an organization. Rather, a team's relief corps should include depth players with specific skill sets. JoJo Romero, Matthew Liberatore, John King, and others will return to be the foundation of the team's relievers next year. Players like Michael Gomez, Riley O'Brien, and others will be fine support players. Hopefully, the 2025 bullpen can replicate the successes of the 2024 group.