Questionable offseason trade acquisition becoming late-inning weapon for Cardinals bullpen

The St. Louis Cardinals are moving up the standings, power rankings, and national headlines for good reason. In what was supposed to be a rebuild season, St. Louis is looking to be a legitimate playoff contender, and Chaim Bloom's first offseason at the helm set up this year's success. One of those moves was deemed highly questionable at the time, but George Soriano is becoming a firefighter in Oli Marmol's bullpen.

When Bloom sent Andre Granillo to Washington for out-of-options 27-year-old reliever George Soriano, many in Cardinal Nation were left scratching their heads. After hearing about roster flexibility and long-term solutions, the Cardinals sent a young, cost-controlled reliever packing in exchange for someone who had yet to find it in the major leagues. Suffice to say that good thing we fans do not run the organization and make roster decisions! Thus far, Granillo has gone up and down from the bigs to the minors twice, putting up a 9.64 ERA in the majors and an even worse 12.10 ERA in Triple-A. The Cardinals side of it has gone much better, as Soriano has stabilized the back end of a St. Louis bullpen that has had its own issues.

George Soriano is the closer in waiting if the Cardinals continue their rebuild plan

While hearing about a rebuild is the last thing Cardinals fans want with all the early-season success, Bloom has continued to say that the future is still the priority, although he did say he could get creative to add to the roster if needed this year. The reality is, this team does still have some holes that clubhouse vibes cannot fix, and delaying any future planning for this exciting run could have damaging long-term effects. This has caused a debate about who could be the next to go, with MLB Trade Rumors running a feature on Riley O'Brien's future as many of us are thrilled that he has finally tapped into his potential to become a lockdown closer. A trade deadline asset sale is still likely, but the replacements for those departing players may be more valuable than we thought.

While watching the first game of the Pittsburgh series, Soriano came in and was stellar in the 10th inning after O'Brien blew the save the inning before. The command of his changeup was keeping hitters off balance when paired with his upper-90s fastball that he has started to place in the zone with more consistency. It was watching him at that point that I deemed him the next closer after the rest of the relief corps is dealt. This was said without digging into the metrics and analytics, and while those may not be bright red on Baseball Savant like O'Brien, Soriano is still getting the job done.

When compared to the current closer, Soriano lags behind in most every category, only holding the minimal advantage in hard-hit percentage and whiff rate. However, O'Brien is the more valuable piece right now, and because of that, I believe the Cardinals should cash in on his value rather than wait and see what the 31-year-old can do over the full year. He has options remaining, but with the injury history and the rollercoaster price of relievers (see JoJo Romero), Bloom should be taking calls from the league and take advantage of bullpen-needy teams with higher postseason expectations than the Cardinals.

Holding onto O'Brien is the safe and potentially smart choice for a bullpen full of holes, but with his market price probably as high as it will ever be, Bloom should continue the plan of filling the minor league holes. Losing a bullpen piece will hurt, but not nearly as much as sending away an everyday piece like Brendan Donovan, especially with someone like Soriano ready to step right in. Even though he is lacking the strikeout stuff, Soriano does his best work in high-leverage spots. According to FanGraphs, in those situations, the reliever has allowed just a .111 opponent batting average, compared to a .292 rate in low-leverage situations.

There will still likely be a fall-off between the two closers if O'Brien is ultimately shipped off, especially as everyone has to move up a spot in the pecking order. Assuming JoJo Romero is also dealt at some point, this would put Soriano, Ryne Stanek, and Matt Svanson in those big spots without a viable left-handed option outside of Justin Bruihl on the current roster. If they want to keep pushing to the postseason, we could see some more under-the-radar moves from Bloom to build up the bullpen, but it looks like the late innings will be covered for this year.

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