In a recent appearance on the Cardinal Territory podcast, Joe Kelly expressed confidence in his former teammate and current St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher
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Video Transcript
Hey, everyone.
Taryn Kovach here with Roundtable Sports for a St. Louis Cardinals related discussion.
So, on the same day on Friday as the Cardinals’, Grapefruit League loss against the New York Mets, starting pitcher Dustin May, who is the Cardinals’, biggest, free agent acquisition, took part in a sim game, separate from the contest against the New York Mets, and the reports coming out of it were pretty good.
he averaged around ninety-seven to ninety-eight miles an hour, with his fastball touched ninety-nine.
this is good news for May, who, has dealt with injuries throughout his career, made his Major League debut in twenty nineteen with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has only started more than twenty games in a season once in his career since then, which was this past year, which saw him traded from the Dodgers to the Boston Red Sox.
May was one of the more intriguing acquisitions, period, for the Cardinals, this off-season, considering where they are in, rebuilding and likely not competing this upcoming season.
Also where May is of just trying to string together some healthy seasons and solid years.
But there’s been speculation, given the nature of May’s deal, a one-year deal with a, mutual option for twenty twenty-seven, that if he is able to stay healthy through the trade deadline, the Cardinals can flip him for more assets.
regardless if that’s in the Cardinals’ plans or not, a healthy year for May would benefit not only him, but the Cardinals as well, obviously.
and one of May’s former teammates with the Dodgers and two-time World Series champ, Joe Kelly, is pretty confident that May will be able to do just that, have a bounce back year, a solid year, a healthy year.
in a recent appearance on the Cardinal Territory podcast, Kelly, not only spoke highly on the mindset that May has of just wanting to, you know, do, do stuff and experiment and prove people wrong, but also, how he kind of changed his delivery a little bit with Boston, made it better, still has the high velocity.
And with the changes he’s made, Kelly called it a cleaner delivery and him, coupled that with the fact of the reports from the sim game that he’s maintained his velocity, that could lean to a good year for May.
And like I mentioned before, if it does, whether that lends itself to the Cardinals trading him for assets at the deadline or for them keeping him around, trying to win more games or trying to, at the very least, keep their rotation somewhat consistent through the year, it’ll benefit them as well.
And if May chooses to exercise his option to return to the Cardinals in twenty twenty-seven, carrying some good momentum if the Cardinals are in a better place to compete or could potentially decline the option, earn a bigger deal in free agency.
Regardless, a solid year would be mutually beneficial and, obviously this is just a sim game.
It’s a very, very small sample size and a very, very, take with a grain of salt period of the year.
But, so far the, early looks at May and the starting rotation at large have been pretty positive for the Cardinals, so that might be one of the few bright spots for St. Louis in a year where they’re expected to not compete, but just continue to kind of build for the future.
For more Cardinals news and updates, make sure to follow me on social media at taryn_kovach, and also join our Cardinals Roundtable page by scanning the QR code there at the top left of the screen.