The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Luke Gregerson. He’ll become a free agent once he (presumably) clears waivers in 48 hours. Gregerson was previously designated for assignment Friday evening.
Gregerson, 35, signed a two-year, $11MM contract with the Cardinals in a 2017-18 offseason during which the bullpen was a major focus. Gregerson joined Greg Holland and Dominic Leone as fresh faces brought into the St. Louis relief corps that winter, but none of the three proved to be a viable contributor for the Cards.
Gregerson is being paid $5MM in 2019 and is still owed about $3.575MM of that sum plus a $1MM buyout on an option for the 2020 season. Given that salary and his struggles since signing in St. Louis, he’ll almost certainly go unclaimed and then become a free agent who can sign with any club for the prorated league minimum through season’s end. The Cardinals would then see that sum subtracted from their own obligation to Gregerson through season’s end.
A hamstring strain and a shoulder impingement limited Gregerson to just 12 2/3 innings in 2018, and those shoulder troubles lingered into the 2019 campaign. He missed the first month-plus of the season due to that shoulder, and the effects may well have impacted him upon his return. While he’s never been a hard thrower, Gregerson found success with the Padres and Astros with a fastball that averaged around 89.5 mph; however, his heater averaged just 87.8 mph in 2018 and 86.7 mph in this season’s even more limited sample.
Gregerson was designated for assignment just 13 days after being activated from the injured list. In all, Gregerson will throw only 18 1/3 innings at the MLB level as a Cardinal. In that time, he posted a 7.36 ERA with a 14-to-7 K/BB ratio and 25 hits allowed (including a pair of homers). That said, he has a solid track record as a setup man and occasional closer. In 599 career innings prior to signing with the Cardinals, Gregerson owned a 3.02 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9 and a 51 percent ground-ball rate.
I guess that they’re ready to give Goldsmidth the number 44 back.
Maybe that will be a morale boost and help Goldy find that stroke he had the first 2 weeks of the season…
Goldy is very texiera-esqe in a typical slow starter and then watch out. Look at his second half last season with the dbacks and just imagine that on top of what he’s done this year, u got lightning in a bottle waiting to happen!
Absolutely true. Every year he’s hitting around .230 and you look up at the end of the season and he’s touching .300. Great for a team heading into the post season.
You mean that mediocre pitcher pulled rank and kept #44 for himself!!??
Cardinals brass should have ripped it of his back
and told him maybe you can have it back when you see the field for more than 5 minutes LOL!
No Goldy refused to ask for it. The number does not matter to him. The only reason he wore 44 in Arizona was because that was what was in his locker on day one.
That would be a great gesture to give Goldschmidt his number back. But that sure is going to mess up bobble head night.
He should have been able to have it in the first place. There was no reason why gregerson should not have given that number up.
Coming back home to SD! Make it happen AJP!
You’ve got enough challenges already.
LOL a Giants fan telling anyone else they have challenges. No one has as many as that once-proud franchise.
Bring him back to oakland and dump rodney please!
Another great signing by the most overrated GM in the game.
This wasn’t Billy Beane.
If you think Billy Beane is overrated, then you don’t know baseball. I would love to see the great Motie work with an $80M payroll.
And what all has Beane won? Second and third place w a low payroll is nice, but that is about it. Win something, then talk.
Beane does more with less. Give him $150M a year for payroll and let’s see what happens.
They can push that payroll whenever they want – they choose not to because they made a sport out of crying poor to accept welfare from other league owners.
They used to outdraw the Giants until the Giants opened their current park.
End corporate welfare for billionaires.
He would have $ to spend on name free agents that don’t live up to the hype … just like everyone else …that’s what happens!
When Luhnow left STL, the brains of the front office went with him. The Mozeliak seat should feel pretty warm right now.
It was a bad signing to be sure. I didn’t like it from the get go… mostly b/c I preferred other options at the time … but I tempered my expectations.
But saying Mo is on the hot seat b/c of this is just stupid, he isn’t. Calling him the most overrated GM in the game when he isn’t even a GM only further proves that you don’t know what you are talking about.
Besides that, I wouldn’t say he has ever been publicly rated so highly that you can even justify calling him the “most overrated…”
Cut the hyperbole… dumb comments like this ruin the overall quality of the conversation.
GM. President of Baseball Ops. Whatever. We all know Girsch isn’t making these decisions. Looking at 4 years missing playoffs. That’s unacceptable.
Next thing you’ll tell me is Jed Hoyer is making the decisions for the Cubs. Get a clue. You need one.
I betcha Theo and Jed are in the same page more often than not.
And I’ll bet Girsch has no say in anything.
And you would lose that bet. Idiot, do you think they hired a GM for no reason… as what? A lightning rod to protect the most overrated GM in the game who isn’t even a GM. Why?
That’s right … GM, President, whatever … doesn’t matter how wrong you are as long as you think your right.
Rizzo get on the phone. He can’t be worse than Rosenthal has been so far
Seems like a Pirates reclamation project. This guy was solid till he joined the Cards..
Fun facts: Khalil Greene was traded from SD to STL for Luke Gregerson, who has traded for Seth Smith (OAK), who was traded for Brandon Maurer (SEA), who was traded in a package for Esteuri Ruiz and Matt Strahm (KC). In a way, SD is still reaping benefits from drafting Khalil Greene.