The St. Louis Cardinals added RHP Steve Cishek to their bullpen this afternoon, announcing that they have acquired to former closer in a trade with the Miami Marlins. In return, the Cardinals will send Miami Double-A reliever Kyle Barraclough to Miami. Let’s dig right in.
Cishek, 29, entered the 2015 season as one of baseball’s up and coming closers. In the previous four seasons, Cishek had a 2.70 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over 249 relief appearances to go along with his 91 saves.
Despite all of that, this season started rough. He made 8 appearances in April, allowing 8 earned runs over 7.1 innings pitched. The end numbers were bad, but beyond a couple rough showings, he actually pitched okay.
That changed in May, when he started getting hit more. He allowed 7 earned runs in 12 innings over 11 appearances in May while opponents hit .365 against him.
That led to a demotion to the minor leagues on June 2nd. He would return to the Majors two weeks later and has pitched much better since. Opponents have hit .239 against him with just a .294 on base percentage. His 3.0 BB/9 is more in line with his previous two seasons as the Marlins’ closer. He has also allowed just a single run since he returned in 12.2 innings over 13 appearances.
Last summer the Marlins chose to hold onto Cishek while he had a much higher trade value because they felt like they had the tools to contend this season. Instead, they find themselves 4th in the NL East and fading and may be planning to unload some other pieces as well.
The reason the Marlins may have been willing to part with him so cheaply this summer is that he makes $6.65 million and would be a non-tender candidate for them this winter. As part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, a player in his arbitration years cannot take more than a 20% paycut. Even if he did, that’s a lot of money to be paying a relief pitcher that you are uncertain of.
Now, he’ll still be a non-tender candidate for the Cardinals, but has two more years of team control that gives John Mozeliak some flexibility towards bringing him back.
To make room for him on the roster, Matt Belisle has been moved to the 60 day DL. With Belisle due out for longer than expected, he went to the DL on June 30th for elbow inflammation, it makes sense for the Cardinals to search out relief help.
The move to shift Belisle to the 60 day DL was a tough decision, according to Mozeliak who said that Belisle is expected to be ready a little ahead of the 60 day window. But that they didn’t want to risk exposing any of their current 40 man roster to waivers at this point as the organization has already played serious roster gymnastics this summer.
Miami will be receiving right handed reliever Kyle Barraclough. Barraclough, 25, is a former 7th round pick by the Cardinals from 2012. He has split this season with High A Palm Beach and Double-A Springfield and accumulated a 2.27 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 39.2 innings over 34 relief appearances. He has served as closer for Springfield, picking up the save in 8 of 9 opportunities.
For the Cardinals this is a great deal all the way around. The move is similar to the one for John Axford two summers ago when Mozeliak picked him up from Milwaukee. Axford had struggled in Milwaukee, but looked to be turning the corner. Axford finished off the year well, and now we get to see if Cishek gets the same script.
When Jordan Walden returns, the Cardinals will have three relievers with MLB closing experience in their bullpen. Mixed in with Seth Maness and Kevin Siegrist (not to mention Belisle when he gets back), and the Cardinals have a potent relief core for October.
The Cardinals will need to make another roster move before Saturday’s game to create room for Cishek on the active roster and Mozeliak has said they will consider returning to a 13 man pitching staff.
Cishek will wear the #28 which was last worn by Octavio Dotel in 2011.
Jon Doble has been writing about the St. Louis Cardinals since 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @JonDoble and catch him hosting UCB Radio on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Redbird Dugout is a member of the United Cardinal Bloggers.