The Cardinals have signed right-hander Guillermo Zuniga to a big league contract, per a team announcement. The move takes their 40-man roster to 38 players. Zuniga is a free agent after departing the Dodgers in November.
Zuniga, 24, was originally signed out of Colombia by the Braves back in 2016. He struggled as a teenager with Atlanta, making it as high as Rookie ball where he pitched 19 1/3 innings of 5.59 ERA ball, striking out just 12.5% of batters before being released at the end of the 2017 season.
The Dodgers picked him up and he found a lot more success in their organization, making it up to Double-A in 2021. That year, Zuniga threw 35 1/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball, striking out 33.8% of batters against a 9% walk rate. Zuniga would repeat Double-A in 2022, but saw a step backwards in results. He’d throw 54 2/3 innings for a 4.77 ERA, experiencing a decline in strikeouts (27.4%) and an increase in walks (12.4%).
Zuniga became a free agent last month, and given he’s never pitched above Double-A, it’s interesting to see him land a major league deal. It’s possible he had widespread interest in a minor league deal, and the Cardinals opted to hand him a major league deal to seal the deal. Regardless, Zuniga still has all three minor league options remaining, so while he’ll occupy a spot on their 40-man roster they don’t need to immediately use him in the big leagues. On the surface, Zuniga’s results don’t jump off the page but he has shown some impressive strikeout numbers at times. He leans on a fastball-slider combo, with the fastball touching 96 mph.
This does not fill their 40 man roster…
Who? And what position?
Relief pitcher… been a career minior leaguer most recently with the Dodgers as a part of AA in 2022. Is still young 24. Not the most inspiring numbers, decent to say the least hopefully his stuff is better?
Roster is at 38?
The cardinals do pull a lot of magic out of their posteriors, but if the braves and dodgers passed? I don’t know why you’d just jump to commit like that. That’s a lot of walks. Maybe you see what’s broken.
Roster is at you beat me too it
Cardinals news. Third DWI. Sheesh nypost.com/2022/12/06/st-louis-cardinals-broadcast…
This is truly hysterical. The last time it happened he peed in his pants during the traffic stop. Derrick Goold went on a sanctimonious rant about how talented McLaughlin is (he’s not) and that he deserved every chance in the world rather than facing consequences for his actions when trying to justify why he was placed back on the air.
Furthermore, multiple times on this site people have gone on and on about the morality of the organization and the morality of McLaughlin in general. He’s a scumbag and hopefully we’ve seen the last of him.
Brad Thompson would do a sparkling job as Dan McLaughlins replacement
Also let’s get Rick Ankiel in the booth as the color more often
I’m also wondering how long the scoops with Danny Mac Twitter page gonna keep runnin for? They posted today
Hopefully that’s what it takes for Bally sports to finally replace him. He terrible IMO. Talks to much, needs to let the game breath. Really full of himself to, talks about how he will bury his color guys if they go against him. Wish they would bring back Bob Carpenter. really anyone who doesn’t have to talk the entire time the game is on will be fine. Get rid of Jim Edmonds too.
Edmonds sounds like he’s actively coaching his kid while he’s broadcasting?
That would presume Edmonds makes time for his kid. He’s typically too busy cheating on his wife to do anything else.
Touche
The Cardinal Way… just ask Tony La Russa.
Needs to hire a full-time driver ….. when he is released from prison.
By the way, I have not heard much about Zuniga.
@manny – he’s Daphne’s love child.
When visiting my friends in St Louis, I made a comment that every billboard seems to be for lawyers, drunk driving awareness, or meth rehab.
All she said was “bingo”.
McLaughlin is one of the worst broadcasters in MLB. Hope he goes away for good
Anticlimactic but ok. He’s big and young. Can’t have too many arms.
You’re missing the bigger story here.
Not really. There are very few good sportscasters in my opinion. As far as how it reflects on the organization, I don’t see big ripples. The guy has a problem. The team tried to help him through it and it didn’t end well. End of a sad story.
Not to mention all the other media members who protect him and worship him because it’s politically good for their careers.
I feel the same Don, the fact they signed him to majors deal? Guess he has options but still never pitched above AA?
Ya I’m surprised it was a major league deal. They said they wanted guys with strikeout stuff and it looks like he fits that bill. Cheaper than Alex Reyes I guess.
Might walk the same number of guys for 5-7 million less? Man, it was nice to see Alex for half a season dominate like we all knew he could… biggest what if other than Tavares in recent memory
I will never get the Cards.
I’ll never get the relief signing the Cardinals make?
Ain’t that the truth?
Despite a willingness to spend, they continue to invest poorly. Last year, they signed Verhagen, Wittgren (and Matz): 0 for 3. If you want to include Packy Naughton, I’d count him as a base on balls.
If getting rid of Dan McLaughlin is the biggest news of the Cardinals off-season then a truly successful off-season it will be.
As always, we await developments.
Maybe Dan should have quit drinking? I know I did back in 2019. Haven’t looked back, it kinda goes without saying if your not drunk it’s impossible to drive impaired
Good for you Hippy. Stay with the bong
Really!!! What a sign Mo
Anyone else see the report on Twitter that yanks were getting juiced balls this year?
Oh boy, here goes Manfred messing with our balls again….
Aaron better sign quick if it’s true
Looks pretty bad, it’s on insider . Com if you guys want to check it out
I’ve always thought you could slightly rig this game of ours with humidors and juiced balls… Umpire keeps one type on one side of his body, the other on the other and gets instructions from a group of cigar smoking men from space jam placing bets on rigged outcomes like Biff Tannen on which one to throw out through a ear piece… okay I’ll stop now
But wait there’s more? What about Albert? MLB needed a homerun race after almost royally screwing up this spring? Where have I seen this before?
clutchpoints.com/mlb-rumors-evidence-surfaces-on-l…
And I thought we had finally heard the last from Roger Maris’ son…ugh! If true, this is going to open up a lot of conspiracy theories, including MLB trying to alter results/records on purpose. This could get really ugly.
Manfred is a slime ball. I’m not surprised he juiced balls for Judge.
Splash! Another Mozalak thinking he’s the smartest GM in the league move. His locker will probably be right next to Drew VerHagen’s.
Verhagen
Wittgren
?
Zuniga
All we need is the Y.
Y Mo, Y?
The move we’ve all been waiting for.
Gotta say I like his first and last name equally.
Zuniga please
Haha coarsegold 1 of my good pals has the surname Zuniga. Plus Z is a really cool letter to begin with..
In what alternate universe is this a deal that we needed to make? A major league contract?
First I find out shockingly the Liver King was a roid fake , now Judge’s record is from juiced balls too , say no mama
WTH? Just don’t get it.
Cards always get burned by bad relief FA signings. At least this will burn less.
Maybe he’s a distant relative of Contreras and that’s part of his conditions for signing.