St. Louis Cardinals should trade for Craig Kimbrel
The St. Louis Cardinals went out and sured up their bullpen last week by trading for Marlins reliever Steve Cishek. Cishek combined for 73 saves from 2013-2014, and the Cardinals will hope he can recapture that type of production (as all players who put on Cardinals uniforms do) to help Mike Matheny give Trevor Rosenthal more nights off.
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While it’s quite possible Cishek will get things going with St. Louis, it’d be foolish of the Cardinals to bank on it. As MLB.com’s Richard Justice points out, the Redbirds are currently on a 105-win pace, which would be the best record baseball has seen since the 2004 Cardinals. It’s all but certain that St. Louis will be in the postseason, and with a World Series title seemingly quite possible, they’d be wise to do everything they can to make it a reality.
How do they do that? First step: Find someone more reliable than Rosenthal.
The Cardinals closer is currently second in baseball in saves and boasts a strong 1.75 ERA, but he also has a knack for giving up runs in untimely situations and getting into trouble before he escapes it. It hasn’t cost him too dearly thus far, but for as good as he’s been on paper, Rosenthal’s been shaky and inconsistent. Add Kimbrel into the mix and give both closers more opportunities to get nights off than they currently are, and the Cardinals give their Western Missouri counterparts some competition for the best bullpen in the majors.
Kimbrel’s season numbers may be inferior to Rosenthal’s, but Kimbrel has also given up just one run since June 17. Rosenthal, on the other hand, has given up seven runs in the month of July. The two are going in opposite directions, and the Cardinals need to fix their bullpen problems if they want to continue the success they’ve had.
The Cardinals’ farm system isn’t what it once was, but mortgaging some of their potential future for a sure thing in Kimbrel would be one of the smarter investments they’ve made in a long time. The four-time All-Star is under team control through 2017, has a strong track record (he’s led the National League in saves each of the past four seasons), and indirectly makes the bullpen significantly deeper by pushing each currently reliever into the next role up. Cishek is working the sixth, Maness working the seventh, Rosenthal working the eighth as a bridge to Kimbrel? The Cardinals may win 120 with that bullpen (not really, but that’s an outstanding set of arms).
If it means moving Stephen Piscotty or Marco Gonzales with a Rob Kaminsky and a Charlie Tilson, the Cardinals shouldn’t hesitate to jump at the chance to acquire Kimbrel. Keeping an eye on the future is a respectable precaution, but a World Series title now makes up for a couple of winning seasons in 2018 and 2019. Add a force like him to the back of the bullpen, and it’s hard to imagine that not becoming a reality for St. Louis.