The Cardinals announced that they have recalled right-hander Jake Woodford from Memphis, with lefty T.J. McFarland being designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
McFarland, 33, is a veteran playing in his tenth MLB season, having previously suited up for the Orioles, Diamondbacks and Athletics. Last year, he signed a minor league deal with the Nationals but was granted his release in order to pursue an opportunity with the Cardinals. That ended up working out very well for McFarland and the Cards, as he registered an ERA of 2.56 over 38 2/3 innings with the club. McFarland was always a low-strikeout, high-grounder guy, which he continued with a 14.6% strikeout rate and 63.7% ground ball rate.
It seems both sides were quite happy with the arrangement, as the Cardinals quickly re-signed McFarland on the first day of free agency last year. The southpaw is making a salary of $2.5MM this year, with $500K of incentives also in the deal. Unfortunately, things have taken a sour turn here in 2022, with McFarland currently wearing an ERA of 6.61. His ground ball rate, while still above average, has slid to 53%. His strikeout rate has slid even further below average, coming in at 11% on the season. He’s also seen his BABIP jump up to .333 after being at .261 last year and his HR/FB jump from 12% to 16.7%. Based on the poor results, the Cardinals have decided to go in a different direction.
With the trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, the Cardinals will only be able to choose between placing McFarland on outright waivers or release waivers. It’s effectively a moot point, as McFarland has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and return to free agency. Though his salary isn’t exorbitant, he’s likely to go unclaimed on waivers and become a free agent again. Once that happens, he could garner interest from teams around the league, despite his down year. Left-handed relief is always in demand and many teams are lacking in that department. Both the Mariners and the Blue Jays, for instance, are currently without even a single southpaw in their respective bullpens.
Hopefully, Woodford can stay in the bullpen of the Cards. The Cardinals keep sending him to the minors when he doesn’t have anything to prove there anymore. He is ready for the majors. By the way, thank you McFarland you pitch super well last season.
He’s pitched well, however, he does need to get his walks under control. A reliever should have a sub-1.30 WHIP to stay consistent.
It would be good to see Woodford get a solid shot. Shame about McFarland, he just hasn’t had the same feel for feel for ball. Great guy
Thank goodness!!
Sad to see anyone lose their job, but McFarland just didn’t work out well in St. Louis this year. It is a good move for the team.
You guys at MLBTR think you could make a post of every player that got traded and show their stats post trade.
Feel like that would be an entertaining read.
That’s not a bad idea
Do you mean everyone traded just prior to the Aug. 2 deadline?
First, that’s a LOT of players. Second, stats after 7-10 days mean very little.
That seems like a great idea at the end of the season. Compile the trade deadline player results to see how the trades worked out for this season. Obviously there would be caveats for players with remaining control but it would be interesting to see the results of the moves made in one spot.
It’s about freaking time! Only about 3 months later than it should’ve happened.
Better late than never I suppose, however, they did give McFarland guaranteed money so they were probably hoping for a turn around.
Obviously McFarland was a good guy
I don’t know why thr article cut out at recapping his 2021 numbers, but obviously his 2022 has not gone as well. Interesting note for me is that he’s been in the bigs 10 years, but aside from the weird 2020 season and one year (2017), he’s always spent some time in minors along with his major league stints. He’s had a pretty remarkable career as a fringe guy, the kind you usually see tossed off to the side because of injuries or ending up in Japan.
All Woodford does is pitch well and get sent down. Wonder how long he lasts this time?
I totally agree. I hope he can keep it up and keep a spot. The bullpen seems to be getting a little deeper. I like the moves.
Thank you, Mo. That was literally killing me.
I remember him as an Oriole. He was solid. That said, I’m thinking he may be done? If the Cards can’t see a fix in a possible mechanics issue, no one can? That said; he pitched for Showalter in Baltimore. Maybe the Mets bring him in for a look see?
Woodford is a really good pitcher when he doesn’t surrender the walks. If he can just get it to where he can keep his WHIP consistently under 1.30 and ERA under 3.50, he would be a good bullpen arm. He’s not far off from that if he keeps grinding.
Looking at McFarland’s career numbers, in retrospect they can best be described as mercurial and inconsistent. After a solid season last year, and a stinky season this year, he’ll probably be solid again next year. Who knows?
Would you describe his recent production as whimsical?
This was good for a hearty chuckle. Good work.
Jmrinaz – Good one! 😀
Can you hear the fans in Stl cheering in the streets? This is second to winning a World Series ring.
Sad to see him go when thinking about his production last year, hopefully he can get right somewhere. Not exactly high on Woodford but he will almost certainly do better than TJ. I’m a little concerned about Stratton so far, seems to be having difficulty getting downward action on the ball.
As I keep saying, you can’t use ERA to judge a relief pitcher’s performance. It is too reliant upon factors out of their control, such as defense and quality of the guys who come in after they leave. Also, the sample sizes are just too small and strand rate varies from season to season, sometimes due to plain luck.
Sure, any one stat doesn’r tell the whole story, but ERA is a generally a very solid indicator of one’s abilities. Sure, it’s an average. In a small sample, they may be very good or bad, but over the course of time, things iron out to show how consistent someone generally is. If a reliever has a 3.50+ ERA, then they are giving up more than one run every 3 innings. IMO, not super stellar. But what would be a nice compliment to ERA is a stat that measures how many runs they allow that get charged to the previous pitcher. Is there any stat like that?
Inherited runs allowed, I believe.
What was interesting with TJ is how he was used so much differently this year. Compared to last year. Last year he was used mostly when ahead, entered 23 games with a lead, but this year mostly entered when losing. Despite the same number of double play opportunities, they only converted half this year (15% 2022 compared to 31% last year). His ERA could have been a lot better if things just went slightly different.
Astros need a reliever. Montoya and Maton ain’t cutting it.