6 relievers the Cardinals need to target on the trade market

Jason Foley, Tigers

A different breed of pitcher from Brebbia and Martin, Jason Foley is a high-velocity reliever for the Detroit Tigers who forces a ton of ground balls but does not have the swing and miss you might expect from a fireballer like him.

Foley is the prototypical sinker-slider guy that teams seem to be chasing for their bullpens now. Foley uses his sinker 61.8% of the time, and last year his sinker had an elite 20-run value. This year, opposing hitters have found more success against that sinker, posting a .322 batting average and a .441 slugging percentage against the pitch. While he needs those numbers to stabilize in order to find more success, the improvement from his slider has to be intriguing.

Opponents whiff when swinging at his slider 33.3% of the time and have just a .105 batting average against it. He has a solid whiff% with the pitch as well, so if he seems improvement from his sinker again, it will be a deadly combination.

Even with the regression from his sinker this year. Foley has managed to get good results in 2024, so it is encouraging to see him continue to get outs even without his best stuff. His 3.18 ERA and 3.76 FIP are quality results for sure, and like Brebbia and Martin before him, an uptick in his HR/FB rate seems to be what's keeping him from producing even better numbers.

I would imagine Foley's price point would be closer to that of Martin than Brebbia in a deal, but again, it should not require the Cardinals to break the bank prospects-wise to make this improvement.