The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-hander Zak Kent off waivers from the Guardians. The Cards already had a pair of 40-man vacancies and are now up to 39 players on the roster.
Kent, 28 in February, made his big league debut in Cleveland this past season. He tossed 17 2/3 innings out of the Guards’ bullpen and yielded nine earned runs (4.58 ERA) with a 21.1% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. Kent averaged 92.6 mph on his four-seamer and 93.6 mph on a sparsely used sinker. His breaking offerings include a mid-80s slider and a low-80s curveball.
Though Kent didn’t show much in his relatively limited run at the MLB level, he turned in a sharp 2.84 ERA in 38 Triple-A frames last year. Command issues still plagued him, evidenced by 13.2% walk rate, but he also set down more than 31% of his opponents on strikes. He’s long been credited as having a pair of plus breaking pitches, but his sub-par fastball velocity and poor command have undercut the quality of both those breaking pitches.
Kent is out of minor league options, so the Cardinals can’t send him to Triple-A Memphis next season without first passing him through waivers. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Kent is eligible for a fourth option, so perhaps the Cards will apply for that and be granted another option for Kent. There’s no guarantee he makes it to spring training on the 40-man roster, but if he does stick on the roster all winter, Kent should have an opportunity to win a job in what should be a wide-open competition for at least four bullpen spots (five, if the Cardinals trade JoJo Romero, as expected).
Links to another Zack Kent
And this site thought the cards were in a rebuild…
With Chaim Bloom in charge this is called “business as usual”. Get used to it Cards fans. It’ll be infuriating most of the time but the payoff should be a deeper farm system
We’re used to a way of operating that is infuriating. Can’t be any worse than what we had.
This. At least we have a direction unlike with Mo.
Merry Christmas, Del!
– Neal Page
“And by the way, you know, when you’re telling these little stories? Here’s a good idea: have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!“
“those are not two pillows!”
Seems like a decent add to stash on the 40 man, hope next week opens up a few more spots….
There are several waiver claims. The teams want to stock up on depth.
So the Cardinals picked up a 28yo Zak Kent,an unknown quality,an expect to trade 29yo Jo Jo Romero, known as a quality reliever,to prepare for the future. Can someone make sense out of this plan?
Win less games now in order to win more games later.
That sounds suspiciously like a plan.
Cardinals are interested in challenging the Pirates for last place next season. Romero can bring back a young player or two and someone like Kent can eat some innings as a replacement
I’ll try. Romero will be a free agent before the Cards are ready to be good again , so getting prospects that can be ready at that time is prudent.
Team control: Romero has 1 year before free agency, while Kent has 6. Romero is a desirable piece to other teams, so it makes sense to cash in on that while also trying to find another player you can turn into a productive bullpen piece.
You answered your own question, Champ; the team is preparing for the future…the future that doesn’t involve winning in 2026.
Keeping JoJo makes no sense when the Cards are in a full-blown rebuild, so trade value and a $4.5-6m cost means Jojo is probably on the way out.
Money, prospect return, and pending free agent status. Ton of sense to trade Jojo Romero
It’s a rebuild. It’s not that hard.
It is hard for this old Cardinal fan of 75 years since the team has never ever rebuilt the team in my time and were arguably the second most successful team ever. This may be how it is done now but watching basically a non competitive team for seasons is not what I will enjoy. So it can be hard Mr Stealth.
1988-1999 were pretty lean years for the Cardinals minus one playoff appearance in 1996, which they bought by adding Andy Benes, Todd Stottlemyer, Ron Gant, Gary Gaetti, Royce Clayton, Dennis Eckersley, Willie McGee, Luis Alicea, and Rick Honeycutt over the previous winter. Most of the rest of the time was middling results by trying to sprinkle in veterans with young players and not really working out. They’ve tried that approach recently and again to the same middling results. A full rebuild is tough to swallow but if done right the Cardinals could be set for another decade plus of contention
As a Cardinal fan, it’s a heartbreaker for me, too.
They should’ve done this rebuild years ago, once they understood that the farm system wasn’t producing the steady stream of talent that it used to. That’s how this organization has consistent success: a core of controllable young talent augmented by a handful of impact veterans.
This goes back to the signings of Leake, Fowler, and Cecil to fill holes that the farm previously would’ve been able to. A mid-market club can’t compete with signings like that. If Mo had an eye for evaluating talent he would’ve been able to spend those literal hundreds of millions a bit more wisely.
1970s and early 1990s were pretty rough.
The 1990s had plenty of mediocre teams. From 1990-1999 they made the playoffs once finished 6th in NL east 1990 (70-92) 2nd in NL East 1991(84-78) 3rd in NL East 1992 (83-79) 3rd in NL East 1993 (87-75) 3rd in NL Central 1994 (53-61-1) 4th in NL Central 1995 (62-81) 1st in NL Central 1996 (88-74 lost NLCS 4-3 to Braves) 4th in NL Central 1997 (73-89) 3rd in NL Central 1998 (83-79-1) 4th in NL Central 1999 (75-86)
The 2020s are shaping up to be about the same without the NLCS appearance. Just a wildcard in 2022 the 1970s were also filled with mediocre teams. The 60s, 80s, and 2000-2015 were golden years. Peaks and valleys
I was around for the early 90s years. They have 100% gone through a rebuild before.
The team has had roster turn over and replaced veterans with rookies and traded for veterans to fill roster needs but they have avoided the full scale tear down process before. They have always displayed a confidence and had optimism that they had a team to compete in the coming season.
This is a nice pickup. Low-risk move. If he can stay healthy, he’s got a chance to be a pretty solid relief pitcher.
I agree, which makes it curious that the Guardians DFA’d him. They didn’t need the roster spot, and they’re already a little short in the bullpen.
Cleveland regarded Brogdon more highly, simple as that. This opens up room for a Rule V pick or a trade that requires roster spots. No mystery in any of this.
Would CLE have preferred Kent sneak through? Of course, but he is a last guy in the pen sort and CLE has a knack of finding those guys should they be needed. Right now Kent was expendable and I’d regard the fact that the Cardinals picked him up that their pen depth is short an arm or two.
sounds like a farm boy from Smallville
It’s his little brother with no powers.
The article states his breaking pitches are his power ahahahaha
Trevor Hoffman HOF with a change-up.
Sounds like a waste of a 40 man spot, since we do not have a competent pitching coach.