The Cardinals have re-signed right-handed reliever Wilking Rodríguez to a minor league deal, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. The righty will be a non-roster invitee in Spring Training.
Rodríguez, 34 in March, returns to the organization with whom he technically spent 2023. The Cards grabbed him from the Yankees one year ago in the Rule 5 draft. He opened the season on the injured list due to right shoulder soreness and underwent surgery in May. He stayed on the IL for the full season and collected a year of service time but never pitched in a regular season game for the Cards. He was outrighted off the roster last week and elected free agency, but now returns in a non-roster capacity.
His selection in the Rule 5 was fairly unusual as most picks in that draft tend to be players in their early 20s who have yet to crack the big leagues. But Rodríguez actually made his major league debut back in 2014, tossing two innings for the Royals. He spent much of the intervening time away from affiliated ball, pitching for teams in Venezuela and Mexico. The Yanks signed him to a minor league deal in August of 2022, surely intrigued by his 2.01 earned run average and 43.2% strikeout rate in Mexico that year. The Cardinals plucked him away a few months later but were unable to make use of his talents due to the shoulder injury.
Rodríguez will give the Cards a bit of extra depth for their bullpen, which is in a state of flux. The relief corps posted a collective 4.47 ERA in 2023 and traded away Chris Stratton and Jordan Hicks at last year’s deadline.
Mo said there would be more moves. Here’s our TOR arm. Now we just need a few role players and this team’s ready for October!!
I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.
You forgot the part about donating our two best minor league players to the AL before calling it quits to put a Ronald McDonald farmhouse bowtie on it!
The Burger phone is ringing? Who’s picking up for John Mozeliaks Talent Dump? Oscar Taveras… is that you?
*Tom sawyer by rush starts playing* and Mozeliak exists stage left before the rotten tomatoes fly in his direction
God you guys cry a lot.
lmfao also crazy
Here’s the winning recipe
Derp derp derp…I’m a Cardinals fan…derp derp derp…big move here…derp derp.
I’m sure Joel P is angry and thinks this is stupid.
Calm down guys he probably won’t be on the 40 man for long. (in all seriousness I’m finding your address mozeliak sleep with one eye open)
This signing isn’t the one causing upset. It’s signing two of the worst starters on the market.
Well, all is forgiven.
Mozeliak is off to a bad, bad start. They made it seem like they were going to make impact moves to their rotation, and we have Gibson and Lynn. Wilking Rodriguez is not a bad move for bullpen depth but they’ve already lost the offseason
LoL.
LoL. The sky is falling and it’s not even Thanksgiving.
They’ve said their goal is to get back to the World Series, and their rotation is currently Mikolas, Matz, Lynn & Gibson. You think they can win it all with this?
Lynn, Gibson, Matz, Goldschmidt and probably Arenado money gone after 2024. Deep young core of position player intact and tons of money available for the winter of 2024…..where they can once again dumpster dive. Oh the possibilities.
That’s never their goal. Their goal is to “compete for the playoffs.” They are just hoping the playoffs keep expanding to include all teams.
100% agree. If I was Arenado I’d request a trade and be out of there after 2024. This team is both not developing impact pitching and not signing impact pitchers in free agency. Still a lot of time left in the offseason but doubt they’ll have what it takes
Bob Gibson… maybe. Kyle? No shot.
I doubt that rotation will get them out of the Central Division basement. World Series? Not a chance.
Then it’s a good thing that they still have most of the offseason left to make their impact pitching additions.
Once they have a #1 and #2 starter ahead of those 4 guys and an overhauled bullpen, then yes, they will have a decent shot to get back to the playoffs and maybe win it all.
Since 2014 Rodríguez has a big league ERA of 0.00. Hard to believe he could only get a minor league deal…
Technically, 0/0 is an inderterminant form that could mean any number, not necessarily zero.
Snark is apt. But here is what is going on with the Cards organizatión.Marmol is a lame duck. They kept him because they can totally control him. Schild knows. Mo is also vulnerable. What he wants is total incorporatión of analitics. He believes numbers can rule. He has a short
leash to prove it. The Lynn and Gibson signing plays into the thinking. Hopefully the plan includes some power relief arms. Unfortunately Baseball is more complicated. Players are People. Last night I found out my wife has been cheating on me. I can play tonight but if you were considering giving me a day off, maybe today !!!would be good. Analize that.
In the end the mentality is that players are just pawns!
The best teams play in baseball are analytics users. The industry considers the Cardinals to be falling behind here. Also Mo has a job as long as he wants one. He does everything hand in hand with Bill. He is far from vulnerable.
You guys gotta see his baseball reference pic…Scary looking facial hair. I thought it was a mask at first..
Haha, it does look like a mask around his chin. Guy with a beard like that is definitely a bullpen guy.
You raise a good point hah
I just commented about his facial hair before reading your comment!
Great minds think alike, and so do we.
I’m glad you did!!! “Knight helmet visor” is way more apt and gives people that refuse to look at his pic better perspective.
Haha refusal isn’t an option, it must be seen and discussed.
When MO said he was getting 3 pitchers, he must have meant 3 pitchers of beer. Which is what I need right now.
I’m right there with ya lol by the way, digging your handle on here. That is a nickname of the town I grew up in lol
What town is that?
Rantoul, IL
Oh OK, I’m from west KY. I used to deliver to the Mitsubishi plant there. I didn’t realize about the nickname.
I don’t know why, but this dude’s facial hair upsets me. It’s like some sort of weird knight helmet visor made of hair.
If I were a GM I wouldn’t sign him for that reason alone.
Maybe Mo has a thing for that.
Lol. “Mo loves medieval-inspired facial hair”, sounds like a good game day poster.
I get all the hate, trust me I’m the same… but has anyone thought of these things:
1. Matz is a wild card at best. He’s been hurt more than healthy and iffy when healthy.
2. Both Gibson and Lynn are older, how do we know they aren’t bullpen arms especially lynn…. he would be pretty ok out of the pen I think.
3. Aaron Nola was never going to be pursuing or anyone else’s besides Philly.
4. There is no way the Cards are done. They also won’t be signing headline pitchers before Thanksgiving. Jist the way the market works.
If Gibson, Lynn and some other b.s. pit her is all that mo does this off-season, then fine, off with his head. But until the off-season is over, have some patie ce and see what happens. Just my opinion
Why would any team sign Lynn and Gibson as relievers? They don’t have the stuff for it.
That’s just the backup plan if one or the other doesn’t win a rotation spot.
Maybe they’re setting up for a six-man rotation when they sign Yamamoto?
Exactly!
I sure hope so. Didn’t consider that, but it would make a lot of sense
1. Matz being a wild card makes it even more vital to get credible pitching, rather than hoping for rebounds.
2. They have not been bullpen arms, so likely would have waited into the off season before accepting a different role.
3. What does Nola have to do with anything? Its not like Nola’s signing meant Lynn and Gibson were the only pitchers left.
4. After signing these two, there’s no reason for the Cards to sign a headliner. They won’t be competing next year.
After these two signings, top free agents also know they won’t be competing next year. Why would they sign now unless Cardinals grossly overpay? The Cardinals resist even paying market price.
The point CardFan77 is making is that they will be getting *two* additional quality starters in addition to those guys, not just one. Thus, either Lynn, Gibson, or Matz could wind up in the bullpen with no room for all of them in the projected starting rotation, unless there’s an injury, of course.
They do still have the money for it (and bullpen additions) if they can get a guy with a relatively cheap salary in trade.
Probably gonna stick with the theme and bring Joe Kelly back too.
The journey to fixing the bullpen begins with a single low key signing…