The St. Louis Cardinals aren’t expected to rank among the top spenders in free agency this year, but it wouldn’t be shocking if they still added at least one interesting starting pitcher.
Their projected rotation has some solid components, yet with three-time All-Star Sonny now dealt to the Boston Red Sox, the team likely lacks the depth needed to get through the start of the season—unless St. Louis plans to bring up several of its top prospects right away on Opening Day.
Fortunately, this year’s free-agent pitching market has something for everyone, and one baseball expert foresees the Cardinals picking up a right-hander who dominated for the division-rival Chicago Cubs this season — but out of the bullpen.
Cardinals to acquire Brad Keller
On Tuesday, Andy McCullough of The Athletic predicted that the Cardinals would sign 30-year-old Brad Keller, who put up a 2.07 ERA as the Cubs’ setup man for most of the season and even became the closer in October.
“The Cardinals should be active this winter, but that will mostly entail finding a new home for third baseman Nolan Arenado and seeing if there is a bonanza available in exchange for utility man Brendan Donovan,” McCullough wrote.
“Chaim Bloom spoke about ‘hard decisions and short-term sacrifices’ facing the club, so nine-figure expenditures sound unlikely. But Keller is an intriguing candidate to convert back to the starting rotation after an excellent season as a reliever for the Cubs in 2025.”
Keller won’t necessarily come cheap, as The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected him for a three-year, $30 million deal earlier this offseason. That’s probably as low an average annual value as the Cardinals are going to find on anyone who can legitimately contribute to the starting rotation next year, though.
The trade-off, of course, is that Keller’s track record of starting in the majors is mediocre at best (4.33 ERA in 117 starts). He clearly found something this season working out of the bullpen, though, and he’s coming from a pair of organizations that have good recent track records with pitching development in the Cubs and Boston Red Sox.
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