The Cardinals claimed reliever Anthony Veneziano off waivers from the Marlins, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Miami had designated him for assignment last week when they promoted outfielder Jakob Marsee.
Veneziano is a 6’5″ lefty who has made 38 MLB appearances over the past three years. He has a combined 3.93 earned run average through 36 2/3 innings, striking out 20.6% of opponents against an 8.8% walk rate. He leans mostly on a mid-80s slider while averaging around 94 MPH on his fastball. Veneziano has managed serviceable big league production, but he has given up eight runs with an underwhelming 12:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 Triple-A appearances this year.
St. Louis traded Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz and Phil Maton at the deadline. They lost John King to an oblique strain last week. JoJo Romero is the only southpaw in Oli Marmol’s bullpen. He is now the team’s best reliever and probably going to get a decent amount of work in the ninth inning. Romero picked up the save, his first of the season, on Saturday in the team’s only win since the Helsley trade. Veneziano won’t jump right into the big league bullpen, but he’s the only other healthy lefty reliever on the 40-man roster.
This is the guy you claim with all the dfas available? His minor league numbers are terrible
You do realize there is a waiver wire order, correct? If Bryan Hudson or PJ Poulin, also LHP RPs who were claimed yesterday, had made it to them in the waiver wire order they would have jumped on one of them.
Aside from all of that, it never hurts anything to take a flyer on a guy. He is going to AAA anyway. They needed more LHP RP depth after trading Matz. Remember King is also on the IL.
Yes i do realize there is a waiver wire order, there were still pitchers with better numbers available that didnt get picked up(regardless of which hand they throw with). I love how everyone on here always has a snarky answer like they are the only person who watches or follows baseball
When you come in with “hot takes,” don’t be surprised if people react strongly when you’re, ahem, off base.
Him or a reunion with Gensis Cabrera? Cabrera is good when he’s good, but when he’s off look out
Not the recently DFA’d NL East lefty I would have targeted if I were the Cardinals (that would’ve been Jose Castillo of the Mets) but I’m glad they’re taking a look at someone regardless. Has had a rough run in AAA but looked good in the big leagues last year.
left-handed pitchers always get more opportunities
Romero is the “team’s best reliever”?? Have you ever heard of Kyle Leahy?
Word on the street (sports journalists, Randy K) is, Leahy is going to get more of a look as a starter in the spring.
Jojo is currently the closest thing we have to a closer, but a bunch of guys are going to get looks at that spot, now that it is available.
Leahy was terrible as a starter coming through the system. Really bad. I thought the Cardinals were insane giving him a chance in the bigs with his awful milb stats but clearly they know more about him than I do. I’d be really reluctant to mess up his good run this year by putting him back in the rotation.
He’s a late-bloomer at 28, but this is only his second full season in the bigs and he’s improved a ton from last year.
Given his size and that he throws six pitches all above average, he’s going to get a good hard look as a starter, and should.
This team needs homegrown players and I think he has a good chance at being a middle of the rotation guy, which we need, desperately.
Take a look at his baseball savant profile. Lots of good things to see.
There is no harm in giving Leahy a look as a starter except it implies that next season is going to be another “runway season”. Under normal circumstances it would be defensible for a new POBO to play it safe and use his first season as an evaluation period, but Bloom has had plenty of time to do his evaluations. Cardinals’ ownership is simply planning to wait out the existing big money contracts before they re-invest in the ML roster.
The DeWitts got their first taste of criticism and fan backlash in the form of lowered attendance. They plan to spend at least another year pouting about it.
You are joking right?