The Cardinals have released reliever Nick Wittgren, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The veteran will head back to the open market upon clearing waivers.
St. Louis signed Wittgren to a one-year contract during Spring Training that guaranteed him $1.2MM. He’ll receive the remainder of that salary, with the Cards on the hook for the tab. A club that signs the righty will only be responsible for the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum for any time he spends on their MLB roster. That figure would be subtracted from the Cardinals obligations.
Wittgren, 31, appeared in 29 games for St. Louis. He tossed a matching number of innings, posting a disappointing 5.90 ERA while striking out a career-low 12.7% of opponents. That was a marked drop relative to the league average 23.6% mark he posted for Cleveland last season, and a particularly stark decline from his personal-best 28.6% during the truncated 2020 campaign. Wittgren demonstrated continued strong control, but the downturn in swing-and-miss led the Cardinals to go in a different direction.
A seven-year MLB veteran, Wittgren has also suited up with the Marlins and Indians during his career. He’s allowed just under four earned runs per nine over 300 1/3 innings, posting slightly below-average strikeout and grounder rates but working as a generally durable and reliable middle innings arm. He’ll surely get another opportunity elsewhere, although it’s likely to be of the minor league variety given his slow start in 2022.
I’ll always root for Wittgren. The dude owns his gap teeth, which I respect because I had one for a while before getting an implant.
Really thought a team like the Cubs would claim him, he’s not owed that much and then when they trade away Robertson, Martin, Givens they would still have a veteran arm in the pen.
Not sure he has a ton left, but you never know when some guys are going to catch on fire and really help a team out.
Greg Holland
That Holland deal cost the Birds a heck of a lot more when it didn’t pan out.
The comp pick is what was the big loss in that deal. Those comp picks are extremely valuable when a team like the cards usually have half a team of homegrown players.
I’d rather see Wittgren pitch than T.J. McFartland. McFartland may be a lefty, but when your that bad, it doesn’t matter. Cards probably made a mistake here.
The reason McFarland is still on the team and witgren isn’t is because Witgren signed a one year deal… we’re stuck with “McFartland” and his walking in runs with the basesloaded
They both suck. McFarland will be gone when Flaherty and Matz come back and a couple guys now starting go to bullpen.
You want see Flaherty this year
Probably won’t see much of Flaherty next year, either.
I predict a shoulder surgery, extensive rehab, one-year pillow deal with the Cards, then off to the Dodgers.
Wittgren picked up a bunch of veteran move timing tricks from Oliver Perez when they were both in Cleveland. Now he tries all sorts of quick pitches, hitches, and delays. I feel like more pitchers should try that stuff.
One down, two to go. McFarland and VerHagen. Promote some guys from Memphis. How could Woodford and Thompson be any worse than these two?
Couldn’t agree more. Ver hagen will be the last to go due to his 2 year contract, but unless he comes back hot there’s no reason to keep him. Dickerson going 2 for 3 last night extended his leash just a tad but he should be on the short list of those to go to. I like sosa but man has he been terrible. I say trade him for whatever you can get and give all his playing time to donovan.
Donovan is sick right now, otherwise he would be playing. Sosa is a utility bench guy all day long for this team.
Verhagen won’t be released. He’ll just become the next punching bag in line.
Flaherty sucks, Matz too.