The St. Louis Cardinals are mostly running things back with their young core and some veterans from the 2024 season, but even John Mozeliak has acknowledged a desire for reinforcements if they can find the right matches in free agency.
Specifically, Mozeliak has mentioned the potential of bringing in another arm for the Cardinals’ bullpen or a right-handed bat, and in his words, preferably one with some “thump”. Well, lucky for the Cardinals, free agency has been at a bit of a standstill the last month, and so there are plenty of names that can fill those voids for them if the front office makes the effort to acquire them
Today I wanted to take a look at six names that would fit what the Cardinals are looking for. No, they aren’t flashy. I tried to stick to what we know they want (that reliever and right-handed bat) and target names that aren’t going to require big multi-year deals to bring into the fold.
Arguably the least flashy name on this list, Phil Maton is from near the St. Louis area and would represent a proven veteran option that they could add to the back of their bullpen in 2025.
In 71 games coming out of the Rays’ bullpen last year, Maton posted a 3.66 ERA while covering 64 innings of work. He had one of the lower K% of his career (22.6%) but posted a career-best 46.8% ground ball rate, the result of the Rays’ maximizing Maton’s arsenal last year. Maton is one of the best in the game at not allowing hard contact, which is a good recipe for any pitcher.
One of the major changes the Rays’ made to Maton’s arsenal was reintegrating a cutter, something he had stopped throwing in 2022 and 2023. This, paired with a dip in the use of his four-seam fastball and curveball helped Maton continue to be successful on the mound, but he was actually a fair bit better in 2023 with the Astros. In that season, Maton posted a 3.00 ERA in 66 innings of work and a 3.74 FIP.
Maton makes a ton of sense as an inexpensive veteran option for the Cardinals to add to their bullpen before Spring Training.
