The Cardinals have claimed Justin Miller off waivers from the Nationals, who recently designated the right-hander for assignment. St. Louis moved Jack Flaherty to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster and optioned Roel Ramirez to clear an active roster spot, per MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (via Twitter). Moving Flaherty is largely clerical, as he was not expected to return from tearing his oblique before August.
Miller, 34, had trouble getting anyone out in his last appearance with the Nationals, turning a 5-0 relaxer into a bit of a nail-biter against the Mets. He gave up a two-run homer to Pete Alonso, followed by a solo shot to Billy McKinney. Kevin Pillar yanked another potential homer foul, but Miller recovered to strike him out.
Despite some rough outings this season, Miller has been a productive member of the bullpen in years past. He owns a 4.63 career ERA in 159 1/3 innings with the Nationals, Rockies, and Tigers. He’s a fastball/slider guy who hasn’t had much life on the heater of late. All three home runs he gave up this season came on the four-seamer — averaging 93 mph, down just a touch from where it usually sits.
Ramirez, 26, made just one appearance for the Cardinals. He faced four batters, gave up one hit and two walks while tagged for three earned runs. Ramirez has options remaining, so he can be moved freely between Triple-A and the Majors without being exposed to waivers.
Wow, the Cardinals are really hard up for pitchers if they are claiming this guy off of waivers. 34 years old, 15.00 ERA this season (very small sample though) and he really hasn’t had a good MLB season since 2018. You’d think that the Cardinals had better internal options to call up versus taking a flyer on this guy.
I do wish Miller well and hope he can capture some lightning in a bottle for St. Louis but this move just reeks of desperation.
This is routine for the Cardinals. They will continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel hoping to find something good. That’s why they have been mediocre since 2013. It is a sad practice they now follow for a once proud franchise.Fans are already giving up on them this year.
well he’s better than Mr. 81.00 ERA Roel Ramirez, that’s for sure
Justin Miller to me is one of those guys who feels like he’s been in the league a lot longer than he has.
Someone mentioned Merrill Kelly was on the Cards radar. Is there any buzz in St. Louis on that front?
Time to clean house! Mo, Girsch, our Cialis commercial head coach, along with everyone except Willie need to go. Arenado should walk if we will not provide him with a world series competitive team. You can only defer the blame so much and i think 10 years is enough of a sample size to realize the front office isnt cutting it. Dewitt will be continued to be thought of as a money hungry owner until changes are made. Joe schmo lefty A, B, and C cant save the season so your pretty much throwing money away with these journeymen soft throwers.
I think the team is as doomed as the St Louis economy has been since Anheuser-Busch was hostilely bought out by INbev and the Stan Kronke moved the Rams. The STL economy has steadily gone down hill since then. I sure am happy they give out these bobble heads every month though!
The real headline isn’t some lefty we got off waivers, it’s Flaherty to the 60 day DL. We knew it was coming, but it still sucks.