4 tiers of bullpen upgrades the Cardinals could make this offseason

The St. Louis Cardinals have been among the most active teams in baseball so far this offseason, and while the majority of their shopping is done, they still have some needs they want to fill.

More specifically, we are going to be talking about the bullpen today.

For all of the problems the Cardinals rotation had last year, the bullpen during the season was among the worst in baseball, and they were consistently blowing leads or tie games and now allowing the Cardinals to finish off games. While the rotation's inability to give the team quality starts night in and night out hurt the bullpen a ton, the group of relievers did not do themselves many favors and needs to improve in a big way.

The Cardinals have already added two names to the mix, one via the Rule 5 draft in Ryan Fernandez and the other coming over in the Tyler O'Neill trade in Nick Robertson. Both guys have interesting stuff and could be significant parts of the bullpen in 2024, but the Cardinals have been clear that they'd like to add another arm or two to the mix via free agency.

The Cardinals could still decide to make a move for a starting pitcher this offseason, but their number one priority right now is more bullpen pieces and is something I wanted to look at in this story. If the Cardinals decide to add another reliever, what kind of reliever will they be adding?

I've identified four tiers of relievers the Cardinals could target, with each tier offering different price points and levels of risk/reward for St. Louis.