The Cardinals have claimed right-hander Ljay Newsome off waivers from the Mariners, both clubs announced Friday. Newsome was on the Mariners’ 60-day injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this summer and, for the time being, will remain on the 60-day IL with the Cardinals, per the team. That’ll be a temporary move for the Cards, who’ll need to either pass Newsome through waivers themselves or clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster by eventually removing someone else.
Newsome, 24, has just 12 Major League games under his belt and has struggled in that time, pitching to a 6.53 ERA in 30 frames. His 18.2 percent strikeout rate is a good bit shy of the league average, but Newsome has walked just four of the 137 Major League hitters he’s faced (2.9 percent) — and one of those was intentional. During his last full minor league season, the former 26th-rounder pitched 155 innings across three levels, working to a 3.54 ERA with an outstanding 169-to-17 K/BB ratio: a 27.3 percent overall strikeout rate and just a 2.7 percent walk rate.
On top of a strong minor league track record, Newsome also has multiple minor league option years remaining beyond the current season. He obviously won’t be an option early in the 2022 campaign, but he could give the Cardinals (or another team, depending on the organization’s plan for him) a depth option either in the rotation or as a multi-inning option in the ’pen. Newsome sat at 91.5 mph with his heater in 2020 when he worked primarily as a starter, but he made 13 of his 14 appearances in 2021 out of the bullpen and saw that average velocity tick up to 93 mph.
The Cardinals were bitten hard by a lack of rotation depth this summer when the majority of their rotation landed on the injured list at the same time. Those struggles prompted the Cards to bring in veterans Wade LeBlanc, J.A. Happ and Jon Lester in the weeks running up to the July 30 trade deadline. All three are free agents this winter, as is southpaw Kwang Hyun Kim, so it’s only natural to see the Cardinals looking to stack up a little extra depth. Next year’s rotation is set to include Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson, with younger candidates for that fifth spot including Matthew Liberatore and Jake Woodford (in addition to Alex Reyes, if he’s moved out of the bullpen).
Zero loss there.
Who knows, maybe he comes back throwing harder than before. Sometimes it happens with TJS recipients. Low risk move.
Let’s Go, Young and Can Help Depth, Looks Decent for his Age could use that extra time that he has left to grow potential
Probably needs to not give up so many hits, especially Home Runs. He is giving up nearly 3 per every 9 innings pitched. I don’t see him making any impact for this team.
Clearing out for Trevor story.
Please no
Welcome to the Cardinals.
He’ll win 17 games out of nowhere, and STL will get rid of him, too.
And now with his offseason complete, Mo can focus all of his attention on Dungeons and Dragons. If this move isn’t enough to get the Cards over the top next season, he can just fire the manager.
They clearly won’t be looking at the top tier FA SP’s but they should at least check in on someone like Quintana. They can’t expect Wainwright to duplicate this season or even survive nexts. Miles just plain sucks. Jack is overrated and his injury should be of concern going forward. Dakota is another mystery and who knows how the next manager will use Reyes. Their staff is a mess once again
Wainwright pitches instead of throwing. He’ll last a while. Besides, now a days, whose staff isn’t a mess?
So I know the question has been posed before, but what is everyone’s opinion now about what to do with Reyes next season? When the question was asked earlier in the season I was a proponent of keeping him in the pen. That was partially because I thought he was the best option as the closer. I don’t think Jordan Hicks can be counted on over a full season. However, given Reyes’ struggles to end the season, I’m more inclined to try him as a starter. I don’t know if his struggles were caused by fatigue or a C-Mart type of lack of concentration/focus. However I think the organization has waited long enough to find out what they have in this guy. If he sees himself as a starter, then I say give him every chance to prove himself one way or another.
struggling was from not being where he wanted to be, in the rotation
Ditto. Start the guy. That’s where his value/worth is at.
I’d move him into the rotation. And, Martinez started losing focus after the world found out about his “magic Twitter” years ago, amirite?
Mo is shopping from the discount rack again.
Mo got lucky on two players on his mid=year pitching shopping, unlucky on the others, but still has some a** kissers on Twitter. https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2021/10/mike-shildt-part-3-cards-fans-kissing.html
I’d bring back Happ,That Lester trade for Lane Thomas goes as another “Mo let Go”moment