The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, with righty Jordan Hicks being activated from the 15-day injured list. Lefty Matthew Liberatore was also recalled to take a spot on the active roster. To create room for those two hurlers, the Cards optioned righty Jake Woodford and designated righty Nick Wittgren for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster now sits at 39, though T.J. McFarland and Genesis Cabrera are currently on the COVID IL and will need roster spots when they are eligible to return.
Wittgren, 31, spent the first three years of his career with the Marlins and the next three with Cleveland. In that time, he established himself as a solid if unspectacular bullpen piece. At the end of the 2021 season, he had 271 1/3 innings under his belt with a 3.75 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 39.9% ground ball rate. He had never posted an ERA above 5.00 until 2021, and even then, it was just 5.05. Cleveland could have controlled him for one more year via arbitration but decided to move on, after which he was scooped up by the Cards on a one-year deal for $1.2MM.
It’s been a difficult season to evaluate for Wittgren, with many of his stats differing from career norms. His strikeout rate has plummeted to 12.7%, barely half of his mark coming into the year. He’s allowed a .333 BABIP, well above his .292 career rate. However, his HR/FB is just 2.9%, well below the 12.4% rate of his career. All of that has resulted in a 5.90 ERA, though advanced metrics are divided as to whether that’s deserved or not. SIERA gives him a 4.73 with xFIP at 5.14, but xERA and FIP have him at 3.83 and 3.85, respectively. There’s some wide variance there, but all of those metrics feel he’s better than his ERA suggests. According to Statcast, Wittgren is in the 99th percentile in terms of barrel percentage and 78th percentile in terms of hard hit percentage. Any team that needs bullpen help and believes that Wittgren’s suppression of hard contract is sustainable could be interested in acquiring his services. The Cardinals will have a week to work out a trade or put him on waivers.
As for Hicks, he returns after just over a month on the IL due to a forearm strain. Though the Cardinals tinkered with adding him to the rotation earlier in the year, he seems ticketed for a return to the bullpen now. In his four rehab outings, he tossed five total innings, with all but one of those appearances being of the one-inning variety. Despite tantalizing stuff, Hicks has been limited by injuries in recent years. After throwing 77 2/3 innings in 2018, he’s thrown just 67 1/3 total frames in the four subsequent seasons.
Ruined his weekend.
I felt good about it though.
Pirates need all the bullpen help they can get. Why not is my only conjecture here
Plus he looks like a Pirate too
I’ve seen flashes of him being a serviceable bullpen piece…and other times he just gets destroyed.
This has been a weird season for the Cards where they’ve really leaned hard on the bullpen. It’s unfortunate Nick isn’t getting a little more time to settle in. I think he could be a decent piece for somebody, but the team and the fans are running out of time and patience since the team’s pitching is spotty.
Somebody should pick him up.
All Woodford does is pitch well and travel back to Memphis for 10 days and then come back and pitch well.
He’s been pretty solid. I hate that for him. I can’t understand why management is so high on several Members of the pitching staff when All they ever do is get hurt and have to go back on the IL.
Yes, I don’t understand the Cardinals bringing Woodford up and down from the minors to the majors. He has been pitching well, but the Cardinals believe he still needs to improve his slider. He should have a bullpen spot already with the Cards. They prefer Oviedo and Fernandez over Woodford when the only thing that he has done is pitching well.
Cards front office must think he’s a jerk or something if they keep sending him down despite his performance.
i’m sure he feels they’re jerks, also
I feel like Woodford is only really a starter until someone else with more upside steps up, so it feels like Woodford is kind of caught in the middle.
I see him as a 7th inning guy, whereas Oviedo or Fernandez seem like they have better stuff and could be better starters.
Hard to tell with so much fluidity throughout the pitching staff right now.
I agree. I like Woodford as a starter or as a 6th/7th inning guy. As for Oviedo and Fernandez, I see a future with those two along with Cabrera forming a dominant late inning mix. All three have power stuff with the ability to get K’s and ground balls in tight situations. I think we will probably lose Gallegos this winter, so developing reliable replacements is important.
Lose Gallegos how? Still has 2 seasons of team control after this season.
I’m not sold on Oviedo at all. Fernandez has good stuff, but strike throwing has always been the problem. I don’t know why Woodford can’t get more of a look, but I have a feeling in August he’s going to be in a different uniform.
It has looked to me all season like Gallegos is hurt. His velo is down a little and he just looks uncomfortable. He’s a good soldier and continues to gut it out, but eventually I think he’s going to need something done.
In regards to Oviedo, it looks like he has dropped his arm angle a couple of degrees in his last couple of appearances and it has made a difference. His control has been sharp and his slider has been a real weapon. If he can continue to build on his last few outings, he can be force.
Cardd667, there is something that has caused him to be on the Memphis shuttle. Not sure if it’s an issue with Oli or Mo, but he is at a minimum one of their top 8 BP arms. I agree there is definitely a high likelihood of your August prediction.
Woodford is good trade bait
I don’t see the Cardinals trading pitching unless it’s for more established pitching
Woodford was also in the starting rotation last year when the Cards won 17 in a row.
Happy to see several comments about Woody here. I do not understand why he is going back to Memphis. That makes no sense.
Woodford must not be woke enough to deserve a roster spot.
He caught Flaherty giving a BJ and called him the “H” word
Boo
Hopefully this is the first in a series of steps to shed what little dead weight is left on the roster. There are several clubs needing outfielders right now, so once Dickerson is healthy he should be gone too. McFarland’s left-handedness will probably give him a little more leash, but I doubt he survives the trade deadline unless he turns it around. VerHagen’s two year contract is the only thing that separated him from Wittgren. He needs to show something or be prepared to accept a minor league assignment. I agree with everyone else concerning Woodford. He deserves to stick in the Majors along with Oviedo and Fernandez.
Yes, to all this.
Hopefully McFarland is the next to be DFA’d! Packy to the pen!
Cards just went back to back to back to back. This team just needs to steady the roller coaster by September. Very talented, very exciting to watch, still pretty inconsistent.
Very inconsistent, very exciting. One trade away from getting it all to come together
Cardinals are making a lot of minor league roster moves. They are moving a few players from Springfield to Memphis and from Peoria to Springfield. Today they just move players from Palm Beach to Peoria. They are ready to do some moves.
Time to move Yadi to full time pen. He was just as effective as some of these dudes like Naughton and McFarland
It’s painful watching Liberatore pitch. He’s just not ready.
More painful watching the offense disappear every time the game is close
The minor league ball is different but yes he’s struggling to finish his curveball and change up his two plus off speed offerings
Bye, Nick