Cardinals trade reliever who helped shape their pitching department

The St. Louis Cardinals just lost a member of their IT staff after trading right-handed pitcher Ryan Loutos to the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash. Loutos, who had a cup of coffee in St. Louis in 2024, studied computer science in the Cardinals' backyard at Washington University in St. Louis and did much of the coding of the "Chirp" app, which helps pitchers on the Cardinals analyze their performances.

Loutos signed with the Cardinals as a free agent in 2021 after going undrafted and playing in the Northwoods League. Through five minor league seasons, Loutos had an ERA of 4.82 in 220.1 innings. In his brief time in St. Louis, he appeared in three games, combining for 2.1 innings and allowing no runs on two hits.

The Cardinals designated him for assignment after they promoted Jose Barrero from Triple-A Memphis and demoted Thomas Saggese. Loutos appeared to be bouncing back from a poor 2023 campaign, pitching seven shutout innings for the Memphis Redbirds before the move. The three runs he's allowed all came in his first appearance on the season.

Loutos was among the most intriguing stories coming up through the Cardinals' system in some time, and he could end up having one of the more interesting post-career employment fields if he pursues the computer industry further. According to the above-linked article by John Denton, Loutos was always the "tech guy" in the minor leagues and was the one whom players would approach whenever they had questions or comments about the Chirp app.

Loutos likely lent a hand in helping the Cardinals revamp their pitching development system after the team's struggles to develop a solid starting pitcher. They may have recently broken that trend with Matthew Liberatore's recent development, and the hope in Cardinals Nation is that they can continue to gain ground on the rest of the league when it comes to molding pitchers into major league starters.

Loutos utilized his program to help him develop his fastball, sweeper and curveball, and his fastball velocity has slightly increased from the past season, from 94.3 mph to 94.6 mph. The Cardinals will hope that letting Loutos go for next to nothing doesn't come back to bite them the way it did when they let Adolis Garcia slip out of their grasp. But with Loutos' recent promising results, the tech-savvy Dodgers were the perfect landing spot for the 26-year-old. Given the Dodgers' exceptional track record at developing young talent, don't be surprised if they and Loutos are a match made in heaven and he pops off in the coming years.