On May 18, the Kansas City Royals designated struggling reliever Chris Stratton for assignment during a home series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He was released four days later, and the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him three days after that.
On June 2, the Dodgers designated Stratton for assignment. He was sent outright to Triple-A on June 5, rejected that assignment in favor of free agency, and then signed another major league deal with the Dodgers the very next day, June 6, again in St. Louis. He allowed a solo home run in one inning of work that night and was designated for assignment again on June 7.
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All told, it amounted to a jumble of transactions that often pop up for a veteran pitcher nearing the end of his career, though Stratton has made no proclamations about his future plans. In most places — including, certainly, Los Angeles — the moves passed entirely without notice, chalked up to the churn of a long season.
The churn, though, is the point. The moves themselves are the point. And the Cardinals, under the guidance of Chaim Bloom, appear to be preparing to operate in a similar manner, much to their benefit.
Those who have followed the success of top prospect JJ Wetherholt this season have undoubtedly experienced frustration about his lack of a call-up at the end of the season, but these two dynamics operate in concert. There are very few pure baseball reasons for keeping Wetherholt in Triple-A to finish out the year, and there are some around the team who have been frustrated by not being able to utilize his talents to pick up a few more victories down the stretch.
There are, however, administrative and roster-based reasons for keeping Wetherholt in Memphis, even aside from the traditional manipulation of service time, which has been somewhat mitigated by incentive-based draft picks for bringing young players to the big leagues. Wetherholt, still years away from requiring 40-man protection from the Rule 5 draft, represents an opportunity cost as much as he is an opportunity — and the Dodgers are proof of that principle.
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When the Cardinals claimed Jorge Alcala off waivers from Boston following the trade deadline, it was partly due to a need to cover innings for the remainder of the season. But it was also because Alcala comes with an additional year of team control; the contract extension he signed with Minnesota covers his salary through his penultimate year of arbitration. If the Cardinals want to keep him — he has allowed two earned runs, both on solo home runs, and struck out eight in 7 2/3 innings — they can do so, now with firsthand evaluation.
What the Dodgers have done well for years, and where the Cardinals have generally struggled, is maximizing roster flexibility by not hesitating to move players off the bottom of the depth chart. When Dalton Rushing fouled a ball off his leg earlier this week and the Dodgers needed an emergency catcher, right-hander Matt Sauer was placed on waivers to open a spot for journeyman backup Chuckie Robinson.
Sauer’s results have been middling, but his arm offers promise. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, exactly the kind of pitcher to whom the Cardinals have clung throughout John Mozeliak’s tenure — enamored with the promise of minor league options and controllable talent, rather than maximizing what’s available in the short term. It’s harsh on Sauer individually, but true in the abstract — there are plenty of pitchers just like him around baseball at any given time, and becoming too attached to any one of them is a fruitless endeavor.
That’s roughly the same reason 29-year-old left-hander Nick Raquet was promoted to join the Cardinals in Seattle this week. His story is one of perseverance: He quit baseball to work at Ernst & Young in accounting, only to return to the game, get released last winter by the Cardinals, bounce back on another minor league deal, then show enough promise and performance to get another shot in the big leagues.
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Is Raquet a viable major league reliever? By moving more aggressively with their roster — Garrett Hampson was designated for assignment to clear a spot — they get to find out. John King, who has had a mediocre season as the team’s second lefty reliever, is currently in his arbitration years, and that comes with a financial cost. There are dollars to be saved, for those who care about such things, in figuring out whether a player like Raquet can approximate King’s contributions at a lower salary. And if not, then not, but the question gets answered.
If there’s a central theme defining the malaise around the Cardinals over the last five years, it’s inertia. They are static. They are broadly risk-averse. The most dramatic trades and signings in recent years have been for players who were as eager to join the organization as the other way around.
There are human reasons to care about the lives and careers of players who fill out the edges of a roster. There are rarely pure baseball reasons to do so. In an era of changing leadership, paired with a desire to become sleeker and more mobile, those are the sorts of corners to cut. It’s not fun for Chris Stratton, but it’s not about him.
It’s about maximizing roster spots, and it’s long past time the Cardinals caught on.