The Cardinals announced on Thursday that pitchers Andrew Suárez and Casey Lawrence have elected free agency after being outrighted off of the 40-man roster. In addition, the team sent three more players, right-hander Kyle Leahy and infielders Irving Lopez and Juniel Querecuto, outright to Triple-A Memphis.
The moves clear five spots on the team’s 40-man roster, bringing the total down to 35. Not so coincidentally, the Cardinals currently have five players on the 60-day IL who will need spots on the 40-man following the conclusion of the World Series: Dylan Carlson, Brendan Donovan, Packy Naughton, Wilking Rodriguez, and Guillermo Zuñiga.
Suárez appeared in 13 games for St. Louis this season, pitching 27.2 innings in a long relief role. The southpaw was little more than a mop-up man, posting a 7.16 ERA and a 5.67 SIERA, while walking nearly as many batters as he struck out. He did, however, look much more comfortable at Triple-A, posting a 4.08 ERA in 64 innings with the Memphis Redbirds.
Lawrence didn’t have much more success than Suárez, pitching to a 6.59 ERA and 5.05 SIERA in 27.1 innings of long relief. Those aren’t great numbers for the 35-year-old journeyman, but on the bright side, he did a good job limiting hard contact for the second year in a row, holding opposing batters to an 88.1-mph average exit velocity and finishing with a respectable 4.39 xERA.
Leahy appeared very briefly for the Cardinals in 2023, pitching in three games, facing 15 batters, giving up four runs, and recording five outs. He was optioned in mid-July, barely two weeks after making his MLB debut. Unfortunately for the 26-year-old righty, his numbers at Triple-A weren’t much more impressive than they were in the majors; he posted a 9.74 ERA and a 6.63 FIP through the final two months of the season.
Lopez has been in the Cardinals organization since 2017, when he was taken in the 19th round of the draft. After a strong showing at Triple-A, batting .315 with a 1.001 OPS in 19 games, the 28-year-old made his MLB debut at the end of September. He went hitless in 11 at-bats but recorded his first big league RBI on a sacrifice fly in the final game of the season.
Querecuto, a utility infielder, was a mid-September call-up, appearing in nine games and splitting his time between first, second, and third base. He went 2-for-20 with a single, a double, and a walk. Having been outrighted previously in his career – back in 2016 with the Rays – Querecuto could have elected free agency instead of accepting his outright assignment, but evidently, he has decided to remain in the Cardinals organization. After bouncing around between five organizations in his professional career, it makes sense that he’s interested in sticking with the team that gave him his first shot at big league action in seven years.
So it begins.
Next?
And just like that -1.9 war is gone.
Nothing really Earth shaking here. More like routine taking out the trash. Those guys served a purpose over the last two months. It was never pretty, but I appreciate their efforts. Hopefully, hopefully we won’t need their services again next year.
Or ever.
Strange that Querecuto would accept the outright assignment since you would assume his minor league contract will expire 5 days after the World Series ends and he will become a free agent anyways. Same situation for Irving Lopez, expect he does not have the right to elect free agency. Leahy doesn’t either but he also doesn’t qualify for minor league free agency so he will remain in the Cardinals organization throughout the offseason.
More than anything this article underlines the Cardinals need to make a trade for the purpose of house cleaning. I’m not suggesting some reach for the stars, our scraps for your ace, type of trade. Just a move that brings the plan into focus, opens some roster spots for needed acquisitions, and hopefully returns some interesting pieces that can help balance the roster.
As an organization, the Cardinals need to do more than figure out how to acquire other teams’ established pitchers. They need to get back to developing their own as well as figuring out how to get productive innings from pitchers other teams have given up on.
That is the real challenge. Anybody can write checks. The good teams turn good arms into good pitchers. The Cardinals need to keep that in mind as they approach this offseason.
Yeah…….Dave Duncan retired…….he was the king of getting that last ounce out of a has-been pitcher.
Dave Duncan was great at what he did. But I’m actually hoping for someone with a little more comprehensive approach. Duncan’s mantra was no secret. Two-seamers, two-seamers, two-seamers. But he didn’t like young pitchers. He had no use for velocity. He was very rigid about what kind of pitcher he wanted to work with and what kind of pitcher he wanted to make everyone into. I’m hoping we can find a pitching development program that can utilize and maximize the talents of a wider variety of pitchers.
Casey’s numbers don’t tell the whole story. He always get called up on emergency then shoved into a mop up situation coming in with the bases loaded then sent back down the same day
The Cardinals need to sign one or two of Nola, Snell or Montgomery. Then trade from their surplus of outfielders to improve the bullpen arms who precede our closer.
The NL Central is theirs for the taking this year. Don’t expect the Brewers to repeat, and the Cubbies showed down the stretch that they might not be ready for prime time. Biggest competitor for the Cardinals might be the Reds. However, they need SP, as well.
No to signing guys with QO attached (Snell and Nola) unless the Cards can acquire a supplemental pick in a trade.
Sign Yamamoto, trade for Glasnow or Cease, sign Severino on a one year incentive laden contract.
WIN!
Surplus of outfielders is an illusion. Walker and Burleson are corner infielders. Donovan, Edman and Palacios are middle infielders. I thing Walker will inherit 1B one day. Baker and Burleson will likely be part of a trade or two for pitching.
This is a good start, but I’m not sold on any of those pitchers. I don’t see anything about how they ever pitched in the minors to warrant a 40-man spot. I could understand Packy because he was serviceable in 22. At the same time, his era was near 5. Surely, there are a few players eligible for rule 5 they want to keep.
VerHagen’s contract is up, Barnes, Siani and Fermin are all non-tender or DFA candidates, and trades are coming up.
It makes perfect sense. If the Cardinals hadn’t been so desperate for warm bodies in the bullpen, neither of those two would’ve seen the Majors at all this year.