Cardinals take flier on another high-velocity righty

Add another pitcher to the list of offseason transactions for the St. Louis Cardinals. After acquiring nothing but arms in their trades this winter, Chaim Bloom added a low-risk righty who has yet to throw a pitch in professional baseball.

The Cardinals signed right-hander Robbie Knowles after a Tread Athletics pro day

So far this offseason, the Cardinals have received major league starting options Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins from the Red Sox, but the bullpen has been mostly untouched outside of the signing of Ryne Stanek. Their latest addition does not change the major league bullpen set up, but it does show that the Cardinals are committed to the entire pitching development revamp that Bloom has put into place. According to the Tread Athletics Twitter page, the Cardinals signed right-handed pitcher Robbie Knowles after showing out during his Pro Day.

25-year-old righty Robbie Knowles comes to the Cardinals organization without a massive track record of success... or really any track record at all. At the time of the signing, Knowles' Baseball Reference page shows a grand total of 26.2 innings, however, only 10.2 of those innings came during his lone season at Kansas University. The remaining 16 frames came from summer league experience, including eight of those when he was an 18-year-old playing in the collegiate Alaska Summer League.

Even without the numbers to back up his stuff, the Cardinals were intrigued by what the young pitcher showed during his Pro Day at Tread. According to the staff, Knowles' fastball was able to get up to 97.3 mph and he showed off three more secondary pitches. His cutter sat in the low-90 mph range and he also unleashed a mid-80s gyro breaking ball plus a splitter. Those offerings, prior to tuning them up at Tread, were enough for Knowles to demonstrate high-profile strikeout stuff during his limited college exposure. Not including his 18-year-old experience, Knowles threw 18.2 innings against college-aged competition and set 30 of them down on strikes.

As is usually the case for high-octane, inexperienced arms, Knowles' knockout stuff also had its flaws as he struggled to keep the ball in the strike zone during his limited tracked time on the mound. Over that small inning sample size, Knowles walked 13 hitters and gave up 12 hits. The righty will be a fun project for the Cardinals' revamped player development staff to take on as they have one of the most raw pitchers they have probably had to work with so far, outside of any teenage international signings.

With Knowles being 25 already, it will be interesting to see how the Cardinals work with him in terms of what level he will be sent to. If he can unlock his command and keep his effectiveness with the swing-and-miss stuff, he could be pushed forward through the organizational ladder in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle.