January 13: Bloom announced to the media today that the Stanek deal is official. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat was among those to pass it along. The Cards opened a 40-man spot by trading Nolan Arenado to the Diamondbacks earlier today.
January 10: Stanek will earn $3.5MM in 2026, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The deal also includes a $6MM club option for 2027.
January 9: The Cardinals are in agreement with free agent reliever Ryne Stanek, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Chris Cotillo of MassLive first reported that St. Louis was pursuing the hard-throwing righty. The Cardinals will need to open a 40-man roster spot once the MVP Sports Group client completes a physical.
Stanek gets a change of scenery after an inconsistent year and a half with the Mets. New York acquired him from the Mariners at the 2024 trade deadline. While he allowed 11 runs in 16 1/3 regular season innings down the stretch, Stanek’s plus strikeout rate and strong postseason work led the Mets to bring him back on a $4.5MM free agent deal.
That didn’t pan out, as the 34-year-old had an up-and-down season. Stanek had strong run prevention marks in May and July but was knocked around in the other four months. He finished with a 5.30 earned run average across 56 innings. ERA estimators were only slightly more bullish as Stanek’s strikeout and walk rates each went in the wrong direction.
A 22.7% strikeout rate was narrowly the lowest of his nine-year career. Stanek had fanned nearly 28% of opposing hitters one season earlier. It’s crucial that he miss bats because command has never been a strong suit. Stanek has walked at least 10% of batters faced in all but one year, including a 12.5% mark last season.
The Cardinals are taking what should be a low-cost bet that he’ll strike out more batters in 2026. Stanek still has the stuff to do that. He averaged 98.5 MPH on his heater, a top 15 mark in MLB. He backs that up with a plus slider and mixes in a splitter and sweeper as his third and fourth offerings. Stanek still missed bats at a slightly above-average rate on a per pitch basis.
St. Louis doesn’t have a ton of experienced arms in the late innings. Southpaw JoJo Romero had been their only reliever with even two years of MLB service. There’s a decent chance he’s traded before Opening Day. The Cardinals were looking for a veteran arm who can pitch in the back half of the bullpen. Stanek fits best in middle relief but could be in the high-leverage mix, perhaps even as a closer, on a rebuilding club. He’s a known commodity to president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, who was in the Rays front office when Tampa Bay drafted him in the first round in 2013.
There’s also a geographic tie. Stanek was born in St. Louis and went to high school not far outside Missouri in Stilwell, Kansas. There’s a decent chance he’ll be traded midseason if he’s pitching well, but he’ll get a chance to play for his hometown club for at least a few months.
Image courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images.
I mean, it’s what you expect out of a tank job. Can be solid out of the pen, but won’t be as good as his Astros days
He’ll be the same as he was with the Mets, which is really bad. I understand a desire for veterans to lead the youth, but in this case I’d rather either let a young guy come up and fill the slot or have gotten an unexciting (lower K) but more effective veteran presence.
Tough at a Christmas party sort of fellow huh
There are so many pitchers in Memphis and Springfield that are better than Stanek. Veteran presence, I get, but he is…not good.
Yes you are correct but I’m sure they are going to use him as their closer. That’s a lot different than regular relief.
Hard to imagine him being handed the closer role over O’Brien or even Svanson given his performance last season.
If O’Brien and Svanson are viewed as longterm, then put save opps on Stanek and JoJo until the deadline, instead of youths future arb salaries.
I guess if they don’t want to win any close games he’ll be the closer. They have much better options for that role in the current pen though. He’s really bad.
He’s a veteran who will teach those young pitchers what it means to be a major leaguer, and it gives a veteran arm to take on innings for those young guys to be allowed to develop properly.
It’s not like the Cardinals are carrying all rookies in the pen. Bruhl has 5 years of MLB experience. Fernandez has two. Leahy has three, although he may go to the rotation. Romero, who still has no strong specific rumors tied to a potential trade, has six. O’Brien has at least parts of four. We don’t have a bunch of starry eyed kids who have never seen the majors in the pen. Signing a veteran to teach them what it means to be a major leaguer is unnecessary.
It actually kind of is. Romero and Stanek are the only two current relievers who’ve made over 1.5M in MLB. And both are first on the list to be sold by the deadline. This is a stepback year for STL.
@Charlie’sSinging Fernandez doesn’t even have 1 1/2 years of MLB experience after all the time he spent in AAA last year, and he sucked at both levels. I know that relievers have notable volatility in their results, but even then it still baffles me how Fernandez went from high quality rookie setup man to an absolute stinker of a sophomore slump. I have no idea what to expect from him moving forward.
Also, your other numbers are really off. Romero only has 5 years of MLB service time, while Bruhl, Leahy, and O’Brien barely have over one year each. (O’Brien may have pitched in parts of 4 seasons in MLB, but not much each time). You can’t be counting partial MLB seasons as full years of experience!
I get your concerns about Stanek, but they really don’t have many better options in the minors right now. After they traded away three of their best relievers at last year’s trade deadline, half of their bullpen absolutely sucked for the rest of the season.
Plus, they might move one of their good relievers, Leahy, into the rotation this year, along with how doing the same with Liberatore last year also weakened the bullpen. Of particular note, if they trade Romero, that will leave them with just two AAAA lefty relievers on the entire 40-man roster!
This is great news for mets fans. Thank you St. Louis.
Great news? He was a free agent.
Which ment Dave-O could bring him back. St. Louis took that option away so I thank them.
Cardinals always seem to over pay for players like this. I hope that is not the case this time.
They sure did a good job with Phil Maton and Andrew Kittredge
Fair, but those guys both had vastly superior track records and merely continued being good relievers after the Cardinals acquired them.
Just in case Ryne is reading this, HI !!! Welcome to STL lol
I like it!
Solid solid addition. Give him closer role. He may have all star year . The skills are there just needs to dominate the mental side of pitching
No chance. Fastballs are meatballs.
Only in commie Queens
Out of curiosity, when was the last time you saw him pitch? When he’s not handing out walks like candy, he’s serving up the most hittable 99 mph flat fastballs you’ve ever seen.
Ryan Helsley would like a word
Helsley at least has a good track record. Stanek has been like that for most of his career
Helsley was only that hittable for a very small sample size. Stanek has been that hittable for years.
K’s are down. BB’s are up. Hits allowed are up. WHIP and ERA are way up. He’s not a closer. He’s a wild stab at a partial season reclamation project from a guy who really hasn’t been good since 2022 to hope someone bites at the trade deadline. Btw, his 2022 year was a total fluke and outlier that involved a lot of luck when you look at his peripherals compared to other years. No one is going to bite hard at this point in his career. At best he’ll bring a low level minor leaguer in return. Not worth it.
O’Brien at the very least deserves a crack at the closer’s role before this guy is even in the conversation.
Cards are gonna be tough to watch for a couple years
A lot of Cardinals fans already stopped watching
It will be interesting to see if Chaim really learned much from his Boston stint.
The early trades of starters instead of letting them walk for nothing is at least one improvement
Nah, we’ll surprise some folks.
He only needs to be good for four months. Chaim will trade him at the deadline.
Smart move
He hasn’t been good for the last three years, and the year before that was a total fluke that involved a whole lot of luck if you look at his peripherals compared to other seasons, which have mostly been mediocre to bad. We’re not getting four good months out of him, and he’ll have no real value at the deadline. Wasted roster spot.
Welcome home, dude. Like Maton, this felt like it would always happen with the local connection
I wish we had more good MLB players with local connections. Of course the good ones are the ones we pass on. Maton felt like the exception…which is why he’s no longer on the team. 🙂
Cardinals fans beware! Bring your fire hose bcuz Stanek is an ARSONIST!
“Doh!”–Homer Simpson
Have the cards brought in any position players?
Not yet. Gotta trade all the vets first.
They have way more young position players than they can find room to play. It doesn’t make sense for them to bring in any more.
Mostly true, but adding a right-handed platoon OF who can play CF would be really nice.
Born on St. Louis, yes. Hometown club, no. High school in KC suburbs. Royals are his hometown club.
They’re rebuilding. That’s what happens.
“Rebuilding” but unwilling to trade any of their halfway decent players off the roster. They will 78ish games again this year and lose value on trade ammunition
Like Contreras, for example?
Horrible player.
Why? Do you think Ryne Stanek makes them at least 2 wins better? The outcomes are basically
A. He has a good first half and they flip him
B. He doesn’t have a good first half and the Cardinals continue to be bad
Stanek shouldn’t get more than a minor league deal, he’s atrocious
Good move for a rebuilding club. Would imagine he’s off the roster at trade deadline one way or another, ( either traded because he’s playing well, or released because he’s garbage).
Also hopefully this means the dfa of roycroft. Guy is huge and throws heat but just can’t miss bats.
He wasn’t going to have a spot on the MLB roster whether this move was made or not.
Roycroft still has at lest one minor league option remaining. It’s too soon to give up on him.
He didn’t cost the Mets much in a trade, and he’d cost the next team even less, if there is a next team. Probably not worth it for the very minimal return. People like to go back to his fluke 2022 year. It was just that – a total fluke. Not going to bring a decent return, so I’d rather just give a young arm a chance.
Joe Dirt to be precise.
Looks like the Cardinals got their big move for the winter unless Donovan gets traded.
They’ve already made 2 big trades and are looking to deal more, whether or not that includes Donovan.
They also signed May and are still looking to sign an innings-eater for the rotation. They may sign at least one more reliever and a right-handed OF, as well, if they don’t get them through trading.
As the Mr. Grinch song goes: Stink, Stank, Stanek
Like his splitter, key part of the 2022 World Series. Last year Cards signed Maton and traded him to the Rangers. Are they going to trade Stanek? More likely than not.
Huge difference – Maton was actually good. Stanek was good in 2022. Good for him. It was a fluke year that he has never been able to replicate.
People forget Maton actually had a pretty meh 2024, including a pretty awful run with Tampa Bay. It’s why the Cardinals could sign him for $2M.
It was still better than Stanek did in either 2024 or 2025, and he also had a much better long-term track record.
Agree that Maton is simply the better pitcher. But it seems the Cardinals were looking to add a truly disposable bullpen arm who they can add to the late-inning mix without worrying about ruining/overusing, with the outside chance of getting some prospect capital for him. I don’t think they are trying to outdo or even replicate the Maton signing here in terms of value or performance.
I disagree. Stanek is so bad that he’s sure to get them closer to that #1 pick!
Jimminy Jillikers Radioactive Man!
Finally good offseason news for the Mets. Lol
How does this guy get $3.5M, while last offseason the Cardinals managed to sign a good reliever in Maton for one year at $2.5M? I get that part of it was that Maton was a late signing after his price had dropped, but the inconsistency of free agent reliever contracts for non-closers really confuses me sometimes.
i am probably one of the few that thinks he could bounce back a little to be filler mediocre middle relief with some flashes but i didnt expect more than a millionish flyer on any deal for him but 3.5 is kinda crazy.
Cardinals new half season closer. I will draft him in the final round of fantasy.
For some reason this fellas name always reminds me of the smell of tuna fish. Ryne/Brine. I can’t fathom parents coming up with this name and if I owned a baseball franchise it would out me off signing him completely
This feels less like bullpen fix and more like flip candidate..
Getting Free of that Nolan bum to open space to the real guys. Solid moves, lets go!
Remove one E and has my favorite baseball name.
Ryn Stanek?
Add an E Smith to your name and someone’s granny playing on bongos and it’s… you know.