The Cardinals have officially struck a deal with the Marlins to add righty Steve Cishek, as Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald was first to report (Twitter links). Heading back to Miami in the deal is Double-A righty Kyle Barraclough. St. Louis will take on the remainder of the $6.65MM left on Cishek’s contract this year, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets.
Before a rough stretch to open the 2015 campaign, the 29-year-old Cishek had established himself as one of the game’s most reliable late-inning arms. Over 2011-2014, he put up 253 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA pitching, with 10.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9. Despite racking up 91 saves over that stretch, Cishek lost his closing role to A.J. Ramos and was eventually optioned earlier this year.
Things have gotten better of late for the side-armer, but it’s hard to ignore his poor early results. Cishek has lost a mile an hour off of his average fastball velocity, with his double-digit strikeout-per-nine tallies from last year falling to 7.9 K/9 this season. Cishek has managed to maintain a swinging strike rate of 9.3%, in line with previous seasons, but that has not translated into the results and he has also walked over a hitter per nine innings more than he did in 2014.
All said, Cishek has worked 32 innings and put up a 4.50 ERA. But there are signs of promise. He has been victimized by a high BABIP (.350) and low strand rate (66.4%), and is inducing soft contact at better-than-usual levels. And, of course, the results are much better of late. He has allowed just one earned run over 12 2/3 innings since he was recalled on June 14.
For St. Louis, the move resembles the 2012 trade to acquire Edward Mujica and the 2013 deal that brought in John Axford. As in those situations, the team will add an underperforming arm to bolster depth and take a bet on improved results going forward.
While the Cards have received excellent work from their bullpen, top set-up man Jordan Walden is still working back from injury and the club has leaned heavily on pitchers such as Trevor Rosenthal, Kevin Siegrist, and Seth Maness. And as Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com notes on Twitter, the Cardinals have moved righty Matt Belisle to the 60-day DL to create roster space, which indicates that they will be without one of their internal options for some time.
For Miami, meanwhile, the deal paints the team as a seller after a disappointing performance this year. The Fish held onto Cishek last summer, when his value was much higher, in hopes that he’d anchor the pen of a contender.
The Marlins did at least manage to turn an asset of little function to the team — Cishek was a likely non-tender candidate after the year — into a potentially useful future piece. But it seems that the organization’s developmental staff will have some work to do. Barraclough, 25, dominated the High-A level early in the year and earned a promotion to Double-A, where his control issues have become more pronounced. He’s worked to a 3.28 ERA with 10.2 K/9 against 7.3 BB/9 over 24 2/3 frames at Springfield.
Photo courtesy of USA Today.
Nice to see that one seller cares enough to act, unlike the Reds.
There’s still a whole week left until the deadline. Whats the rush? Might as well wait for the best offer so we maximize our haul.
That’s the problem, waiting has cost the Reds big time already. Beyond the market evolving from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market (the SP market last month- when Cueto should have been dealt- was a lot smaller), they run the risk of Cueto getting hurt and killing all of his value. Plus, they’re leveraging his return on a COORS FIELD start. He should have been dealt immediately following the Kazmir trade, at the absolute latest. Waiting now is just begging for him to get hurt.
He should have been traded a month ago? It doesn’t matter the market, no seller would make a move an entire ago
That all supposes we were offered something good a month ago. Letting Cueto go for peanuts just so we can get SOMETHING and have it done doesn’t make sense.
Why would we not be offered something good a month ago, relative to what we’re offered now, haha? Common sense dictates that teams will pay more for 18 starts of Cueto than they will for 13/14. Especially if he’s less likely to make those starts now than he was a month ago.
This isn’t hindsight, either. I’ve been saying this for a good month+. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that.
The logic there is fallacious. Why didn’t everyone just deal during the winter break then and get a full year of everyone that they wanted? Needs adjust over time. Some teams from a month ago that might have been out are now in on Cueto and vice versa.
Also, we don’t know what the offers are. If teams are offering something similar to what the A’s got for Kazmir i’m not interested. Id rather have them get the QO pick at the end of the year.
You’d rather have a QO than Nottingham, who is a top 80 prospect on most midseason rankings, and another solid pitching prospect? Well, you just don’t “Get it” then.
Plus, there’s reason to think that Cueto could have demanded a lot more than Kazmir a month ago.
Your logic about not buying at the winter meetings isn’t applicable. Most buying Teams knew where they stood 3-4 weeks ago. The lack of moves, as it always is, is a lack of Supply, not a lack of Demand. Potential sellers were still considering whether to go for it or not with the 2nd WC. Of course, for the Reds, it should have been PLAINLY obvious by that point.
FG would put him in the 85-150 range in their rankings: link to fangraphs.com
The second guy isn’t an extremely solid pitching prospect. Lots of scouts have him going to the pen. We will see.
And yes, id rather have a Carlos Rodon type pick that can help soon than an A ball catcher that might help way down the line. We aren’t doing a Phillies level rebuild.
Agree to disagree I suppose. We’ll see what we can get for Cueto now. I’m hoping he goes to the jays and we get Norris+.
We won’t get Norris for Cueto now. Won’t even come close. The Jays are scared off by his health, apparently. If they get him, it will be for one or more of their non-premium prospects.
I know, it sucks that Walt hurt the Reds with his needless insistence on waiting. But it is what it is.
You really think you’re going to get “a Carlos Rodon type pick” from a QO? Rodon went 3rd overall last year. The average comp pick will be a much bigger roll of the dice than Nottingham is right now.
They better hope for a big outing tonight. If he struggles and walks batters it will definitely hurt the reds
Plus why would a team offer anymore at the deadline when you’re paying for less starts. In my mind the earlier you swap himthe better return you should get (barring a team gets desperate)
Competition causes the price to rise. Now is when most buyers are trying to buy. i.e. If the Dodgers don’t want him, trade him to the Giants. The Dodgers may up the offer just to prevent him from going to their Rival. Look how much Ceshek returned with 4 teams vying for him. Imagine if they had moved him earlier when only one team was interested. Even Less!!!
If Jocketty would be willing to deal with the Cardinals, they would probably make a good offer for Votto. But Jocketty is still kinda mad about being pushed out of St. Louis. I don’t blame him. I liked Jocketty as a GM but he’s old school and doesn’t like to rebuild.
If they wouldn’t give the money to Pujols, they aren’t gonna pay somebody else’s Pujols.
that is one beast bullpen
Cherington, screw you.
This would be great. Rosenthal, Maness, and Siegrist have been relied on too much with Belisle and Walden on the DL. This would add a much needed quality late-inning arm.
excellent pick up by cards. lots of wear on existing arms in high leverage siturations with injuries to belisle and waldmen. , and also if cishek is right he not only can close when needed- add him to siegrist,rosenthal, and waldmen -you have a solid 4 to make it a 5 inning game and lessen innings for young starters. cishek prob makes a large nut for a non closer role, but he is proven and showed a lot of character with willingness to go to minor leagues and fix problems and return in non closer role.
It wasn’t like he had a choice. He got sent down. He didn’t have a choice. The team wasn’t going to trust him with the closer’s role. Again, not his decision. No character conclusions can be drawn.
I was really hoping that the Bucs might make a move for Cishek. Low risk, possible high reward, and would have kept the Cards from adding him.
Good bullpen arm for the cardinals that they gave up little for. He reminds me of nieshek with the arm angle should do good to help out Rosie and Walden when he comes back
Cards are paying $6.65m on top of it? That seems steep, no?
Mostly likely DFA candidate at the end of the year if that’s the case
It’s the remainder of his 6.6 Mil salary, so less than 3 Mil for the rest of the season
Ah, misread that. My fault.
In return for the high salary, the Cardinals didn’t have to give up much for him. Has anyone ever even heard of this Barraclough guy? I haven’t.
He walks a ton of people, that’s for sure.
Nice! Now, if only the Cardinals could get a first basemen…
Piscotty has that for now.
Salary dump.
Although I’m an a meter compared to some of you, I like to guess at what may happen. I’m a Cards fan, and expect them to make a big deal, as they have money to spend. One guy that hasn’t been mentioned lately is Mitch Moreland. I think he would be a very good fit for the Cards.
Could has also give Cardinals Morse or Prado.
Nice article, Jeff. Well done.