The Cardinals have signed left-hander T.J. McFarland to a split contract, The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports (Twitter link). McFarland has spent the season pitching with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, but he was granted his release earlier today, as the southpaw “felt he had a better shot of being called up by the Cardinals than Washington,” Dougherty writes.
Given the Cards bullpen’s lackluster performance this year, McFarland is probably correct in that assumption, though he has a 5.25 ERA in 24 innings at Triple-A Rochester this season. However, some bad luck (and three home runs allowed) lies behind that inflated ERA, as McFarland also has a 25.74% strikeout rate, 4.95% walk rate, and 63.6% grounder rate.
Should McFarland reach the Cardinals’ active roster, St. Louis will be the fourth different team of his career and 2021 would be the southpaw’s ninth MLB season. The groundball specialist (McFarland has a 62.8% career grounder rate) has a 4.08 ERA over 401 career innings in the Show, including a 4.35 ERA over 20 2/3 frames with the Athletics in 2020.
Dumpster diving again Mo… Really!
He’s stuck dumpster diving because he ignored the rotation in the offseason. This signing is excusable – the offseason approach was not.
one thing i would say about mo (and i’m not his biggest fan but he dose keep us in it year after year) is what was out there last few years to really strengthen this team with out mortgaging our future. just like any cards fan i wanna see another ring but not at the expense of getting a ring and 3+ years of unwatchable bb. yes things look bleak now but there is a lot of bb to be played and tbh this is a convo we need to have in late aug/sep if we’re still playing this bad. as frustrating as the cards do can be they have kept us in the thick of it for 20 years and i think as fans we’ve become entitled myself included.
If in it you mean fighting for a 2nd wildcard spot then sure but this organization should always be in it for division titles and World Series titles. Mo is the worst GM/POBO in history.
@charper32 by no means am i a mo fan but let’s be fair not all of his moves have been bad we just want to focus on the bad. also if you do can mo who out there available is a legitimate replacement. just like cash mo is in a tough spot he has to keep rebuilding on the fly and keep a decent team on the field that has a punchers chance. that is not something easy to do especially when you pick near last in the draft every year. tbh as cards fans just like nyy fans we have been spoiled and believe that we should win every year but such is not the case.
He’s not the WORST Gm in History but some moves I don’t agree with
Let’s note some good steals he’s had like the Goldschmidt Trade and The Arenado Trade
Mozeliak keeping the Cardinals in contention????? His attitude is to just pick up enough average players to be a .500 ball team!!!
When he starts catching a ton of heat he’ll sign a Goldschmidt or Arenaldo to cover his rear.
How about those horrible free agent signings and trades that put the Cardinals in a financial bind on salaries??
How many players over the past 5-6 years have either been traded or released of whom the Cardinals still had to pay their salary to play for someone else!!!!
Nothing is automatic, but when you have outfielders hitting 30 homeruns and batting .350 at AAA and you option to trade those players cause you effectively blocked them and didnt know who you should keep because you traded away our pitching depth for one of the players that blocked them a year earlier and signed a free agent outfielder 2 years earlier then you DESERVE to LOSE because you made IDIOT business moves.
the list just got longer when you add patrick wisdom
Patrick Wisdom is 29 years old, and this is his 1st meaningful production at major league level. He is organizational depth at most. That’s why the Cardinals traded him, and the Rangers, Mariners, and Cubs have all DFA’d him at some point.
@nateallred that’s a great point pat is 29 and just now “putting it together” also i would love to see these .350 avg and 30 bomb of’ers we had that we traded away because other than oscar and maybe carlson (avg wise no hr). because last i checked the cards have no one in aaa smashing like that, and before you say look at garcia and randy they were kinda below average with no real spot in the team. just because they found new success in there new homes doesn’t mean they would of found it here. also btw randy is having a pretty average season right now with tb tbh until we see what lib becomes i think that trade has kinda evened out.
st louis hasn’t done well lately with trading players that were blocked in the majors, regardless of age.
You Know Mozeliak well!!!
Same excuses —-year after year —- when the Cardinals need an impact player as a boost “during the season”.
Instead —- Mozeliak will hire 4-5 retreads instead of using that money wisely and hiring an impact player who will actually add more to the team
(Pardon the pun). But we all know Mozeliak’s M—O in helping the Cardinals make the playoffs by adding a star player like Jockerty use to do!!!
Mozeliak’s approach is ——- Do nothing to help the club during the regular season!!!
Period!!!!!!
This was an amazing pick up by the Cardinals, deserved to have a major league chance. Mozeliak pulled some strings, I was ragging on him. These moves this year have made him look like the genius he was in 2011
can he throw strikes? unfortunately this is a big question for us
He can throw enough strikes 2.4 UBB/9 (his 3.0 BB/9 is as a result of managers issuing 28 intentional walks with him on the mound that makes him look worse at throwing strikes than he is.) That said, he doesn’t get strikeouts and is an extreme groundball pitcher with a career 61.8% groundball percentage. I was hoping that the Cards would sign Rick Porcello to be honest as he should be a good fit there.
A lefty with a GB% that high will find a niche on a lot of teams, man.
With the Cardinals defense, groundballs will be great for the team. 3 players with a chance for GG every year in the infield with Arenado, Goldschmidt and DeJong and the 2nd baseman, usually Edman, then his ERA will be low with them.
One other thing is that if one removes the 28 intentional walks from his FIP it drops from a decent 4.15 to a nicer 3.94 mark.
Porcello or Hamels. Cant be worse than what they are throwing out there. Oviedo just looks overmatched and unsure of himself. Needs more minors time. Same can be said of wofford. They have some pitchers coming back and hopefully that will help, but martinez needs to go to the pen stat.
sometimes knizner needs to catch the youngsters he’s caught i the minors. those pitchers are intimidated pitching to molina
@slide you might be on to something (and by no means is this a knock on molina) but your point is 2 fold. 1 these younger guys feel comfortable with each other like waino and yadi and this might be a good time to mentor kinser on how to a game in the mlb and be a good c in the mlb (i’m off the ilk that idc what my c off stats are i care about how he calls a game and his def.). second and most importantly you gotta give mo days off i get he’s beast and still playing at a high level at 37ish + but that’s even more reason to give the guy some rest. as much as i love yadi i feel you need to start giving kis more time behind the dish especially if he is going to be our future catcher.
I would think they are grateful to have Molina catching them. He is much better than Knizner.
@jerrybird no one is saying there not grateful that yadi is catching them or that yadi is better than kinser. what i was getting at is what slide said about being intimidated by yadi. i can relate with that because early i’m my carpenter career i felt intimidated by the journeyman that were older but felt more comfortable with the guys closer to my age. also yadi isn’t gonna be around for much longer as much as we want him to kisner needs to get more reps and more ojt because he is our future catcher
i’m glad somebody gets it
Going after guys who can hit the zone without the sticky stuff it appears to me!
Players traded or not resigned by Mo since2017 S.Alcantra R.Grichuck L.Lynn Z.Gallen T.Pham C.Kelly K.Wong L.Weaver A.Garcia could list another ten at least but why?
????signing. bad numbers
There are only slim pickings out there and McFarland is just another shot in the dark. I hope he can provide something. Mo uses the “blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then” concept of upgrading his pitching staff. The Cardinals aren’t vying for a playoff spot this year, just trying to stay at .500. Best of luck, T.J.