Giovanny Gallegos is moved to a reliever-needy team for next to nothing
Like Carlson, the writing has been on the wall that Giovanny Gallegos would be off the Cardinals' roster in the near future for some time now. They have already made the decision to designate Gallegos for an assignment though, forcing them to either trade him or release him and pay his 2025 buyout.
Gallegos has been a huge part of the Cardinals' success ever since he was brought over from the New York Yankees in the Luke Voit trade, becoming more of the most dependable high-leverage relievers in baseball for multiple seasons. It is a pretty incredible feat, as relief pitching is one of the most volatile positions in all of sports, so remaining at the top for so long is such a valuable thing.
The cracks began to show in 2023, and the wheels fell completely off for Gallegos in 2024. After a lengthy injured list stink and drawn-out rehab assignment meant to give Gallegos time to figure things out, he has returned to the club still a shell of his former self and has only been trusted in mop-up situations before the DFA occurred.
Even so, have you seen what kinds of returns clubs are getting for relievers right now? While I do not think Gallegos will bring the Cardinals anything of real value in return, I do believe a club will offer them some sort of trade, whether it is an extremely low-rated prospect, a player to be named later, or cash considerations for Gallegos' services.
In doing this, the Cardinals can save some money this year, and while they only had to pay a small buyout this coming offseason to release Gallegos, they can even pass that off to his next club.