The St. Louis Cardinals who will be most negatively impacted by MLB rule changes

Atlanta Braves v St. Louis Cardinals
Atlanta Braves v St. Louis Cardinals / Dilip Vishwanat/GettyImages
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Andre Pallante

Andre Pallante was one of the biggest surprises of the 2022 season for the Cardinals and provided a reliable arm down the stretch due to his 63.9% groundball rate, which was second in baseball out of all pitchers who threw over 100 innings.

See what I am getting at here?

The new rule changes won't make being a ground ball pitcher a bad thing, but it will increase the need, especially from bullpen arms, to have more strikeout stuff in their game. Pallante averaged 6.1 SO/9 last season, so his reliance on the ground ball is a very real thing. His 3.17 ERA during the season was great, but a 3.98 FIP indicates that he receives a ton of help from his defense.

While Pallante should still be a quality arm for St. Louis this season, it's fair to wonder whether or not we'll see significant regression from the right-hander in 2023, especially if a guy like Gorman sees significant time at second base.