Veteran castoff could provide needed support for Cardinals' taxed bullpen

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the middle of a grueling 17-game stretch, and the starting pitchers were unable to work deep into games to save the bullpen. Despite the overworked and underperforming relief corps, there have been no moves made to the major league roster to help with that as of late.

The current St. Louis bullpen ranks near the bottom of the league in most every category and has been a major source of frustration in an otherwise inspiring start for the rebuilding Cardinals. Besides Riley O'Brien becoming a dominant closer to begin the season, the rest of the relievers have been a bummer, and with the starters also struggling to eat innings, the hole in the St. Louis roster has been exposed far too often. Even with the poor performance so far, there has not been much support coming from Memphis, so the Cardinals may have to look outside of the organization if they actually want to improve their current relief corps.

Jordan Romano could be a quick bandage for a bullpen in need.

The Angels are currently four games under .500 after another offseason where their leadership could once again not decide if they should buy or sell while in the Mike Trout era. In an effort to help close down their few-and-far-between victories, LA decided to use Jordan Romano in the closer role after the veteran righty struggled to an 8.23 ERA over 49 games with Philadelphia, just a year after a 6.59 ERA during his last season with Toronto. Despite tallying four saves with the Angels, the negative trend for run prevention continued as his ERA skyrocketed above 10, and LA decided enough was enough and designated Romano for assignment on Sunday.

Nothing Romano has done this year has been inspiring as his fastball velocity has decreased for the sixth year in a row, but he is still averaging nearly 95mph with his heater. Even with the struggles, he is striking out hitters at a career-best rate, but the 33-year-old has had issues finding the strike zone. Another concerning trend is the number of homers Romano has allowed in relief, giving up 11 longballs over his last 50.2 innings pitched. However, the veteran does have two seasons of 30 or more saves and has totaled 117 for his career, 69 more than the entire Cardinals bullpen has tallied for their career.

The righty has struck out hitters 28.6% of the time, which among Cardinals relievers would rank second on the team, just behind closer Riley O'Brien. His current 13.50 K/9 would be the highest rate in the bullpen, and his fastball velocity would slot right near the middle of the pack. Romano will have to either be claimed (unlikely) before he can hit the open market, and if the Cardinals believe other teams may be interested in his services, they could submit that claim and hope to work out a trade. Otherwise, Romano will hit the open market and any team can offer him a contract and 40-man spot. The Cardinals could try to jump on Romano and hope the coaching staff could make some tweaks to help him get back to his solid self and, if all goes well, become a trade candidate along with O'Brien and Romero.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow