St. Louis Cardinals add stability to pitching staff with signing of right-hander

With transactions once again permissible in Major League Baseball following the end of the league’s lockout, there was at least some novel curiosity around which team would make the first official addition under the new collective bargaining agreement.

The St. Louis Cardinals were the first past the post, agreeing to a two-year, $5.5 million contract with right-handed pitcher Drew VerHagen on Friday afternoon.

VerHagen, 31, pitched in parts of six seasons for the Detroit Tigers before moving to the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s top professional league before the 2020 season. He holds a career 10-10 win-loss record with a 5.11 earned run average in 127 MLB appearances (six starts).

Over two seasons for Nippon Ham, he was 13-14 with a 3.51 ERA while being used as a starter.

“We have been following Drew for the past two seasons in Japan while playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters,” Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said in a press release. “We believe he will compete for a starting job, but could easily transition to the bullpen if needed. We are excited to have Drew join our organization.”

Rotation depth bedeviled the Cardinals a season ago, as 13 pitchers eventually made starts for the club. Seven of those 13 pitchers are no longer in the organization, with one (Jon Lester) having retired, one (Daniel Ponce de Leon) signing a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels and two (John Gant, Nippon Ham and Kwang Hyun Kim, SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization) signing in Asia.

St. Louis’s projected rotation to start the season includes Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, Adam Wainwright, and newcomer Steven Matz. While it’s unlikely that VerHagen would out-compete any of those pitchers for a rotation slot, his ability to make spot starts and cover innings in bulk from the bullpen made him an appealing addition to a club that will yet again be attempting to piece together a staff following a heavily modified spring training.

Additional bullpen rumblings

An old roster rule never enforced, though, provides a fresh wrinkle.

Prior to the 2020 season and the onset of the pandemic, MLB agreed to limit the number of pitchers on a team’s roster to a maximum of 13 in order to limit the ability of pitchers to perform at maximum effort and therefore increase the potency of offenses. That rule was suspended due to the challenges brought by the pandemic during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, but Mozeliak confirmed on a conference call Thursday night that it is once again in force.

With closer Giovanny Gallegos and left-handers Génesis Cabrera and TJ McFarland having spots locked down in the Cardinals bullpen, there suddenly seems to be little opportunity for unexpected candidates to grab a spot in spring.

During his time with Detroit, VerHagen exhausted his minor league options, therefore requiring him to remain in the majors unless he clears waivers. That, paired with the two-year financial commitment, solidifies his spot with the big club.

Alex Reyes, an All-Star in 2021 who also surrendered the season-ending home run to Chris Taylor of the Dodgers in the Wild Card Game, had previously been advertised as a candidate to come to camp and compete in a starting role. So too had Jordan Hicks, who has pitched only ten innings since June of 2019 owing to a series of elbow injuries and his decision to opt out of the 2020 season.

Hicks, Reyes, additional righties

Mozeliak reversed course on Hicks and Reyes on Thursday, conceding a short camp makes stretching the duo out into starting roles “much more challenging.”

Of the two, Reyes seems the likelier bet to be healthy and ready in the bullpen on opening day. Hicks, who still has a full complement of minor league options, could begin the season on the injured list or perhaps with Triple-A Memphis to solidify his readiness.

Righties Junior Fernández and Ryan Helsley both ended the 2021 season on the injured list with arm issues, and little is known to date of their readiness for the start of the season. Both have, in recent days, shared videos to their social media accounts showing sessions of pitching from a mound.

Swingman Jake Woodford and short inning reliever Kodi Whitley turned in strong performances down the stretch for the Cardinals and would seem to have little to gain from continued time in the minors, but with only eight seats available in the bullpen and seemingly five sewn up, either or both could yet again find themselves the victim of roster math owing to their each possessing one more option year to the minors.

Other roster info

Movement up and down from Memphis, however, will be limited — the new CBA includes a provision that allows each individual player to be optioned to the minors a maximum of five times in a given season.

Non-roster invitee Aaron Brooks, signed to a minor league deal from Korea early in the offseason, remains an option, as do 40-man roster members Freddy Pacheco, Jake Walsh, and Brandon Waddell, the only lefty among the group. And still the Cardinals seek more outside help, considering veteran relievers such as Joe Kelly or Ryan Tepera who could pair with Gallegos at the back end of games and relieve some of the heavy workload he’s carried in recent seasons.

The bullpen’s game of musical chairs will at least pause on April 5 with one or more pitchers finding themselves short of a place to sit. By adding Drew VerHagen to the mix, the Cardinals opted for the security of pulling one more seat.