The Cardinals’ 2023 season was disappointing, however it was something however boring. The electrical Jordan Walker cracked the Opening Day roster, tying a report for many video games (12) with a success to begin a profession for a participant age 20 or youthful. Then he went on to publish what I can solely assume (given the dearth of fielding statistics earlier than 2000) is among the worst defensive seasons by a rookie ever, costing St. Louis 16 runs per Defensive Runs Saved and 12 runs per Final Zone Ranking and Runs Above Common. Moreover, the Cardinals introduced over veteran signal-caller Willson Contreras from the division-rival Cubs for $87.5 million, solely to relegate him to DH and nook outfielder in Might, then to simply DH, earlier than shifting him again to catcher… all throughout the span of per week. And don’t even ask me, or Jack Flaherty for that matter, concerning the right-hander’s fastball velocity.
However Kyle Gibson is boring. Final yr, the Cardinals have been within the backside 10 in baseball in ERA, FIP, xFIP, and SIERA, and on the Common Managers Conferences a few weeks in the past, Cardinals’ President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak made clear the staff’s need to improve their pitching workers this offseason. However the Playing cards whiffed on Aaron Nola regardless of their early curiosity within the ace, and as a substitute went with… Lance Lynn and Gibson?
Now, Gibson has his deserves. As Leo Morgenstern notes within the very non-boring piece linked above, there’s apparent worth in what the veteran gives: Even at 36, he can moderately be counted on for 170ish average-ish innings. Since his full-season debut in 2014, he’s began extra video games than anybody else, and solely Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole, and Zack Greinke have coated extra frames. Granted, of the highest 65 pitchers in video games began since 2014, solely Patrick Corbin (4.54) has a better ERA, however Gibson’s 4.48 mark isn’t unhealthy in any respect. And if he will be counted on as soon as each 5 days, that saves the Cardinals from calling up somebody who would possibly publish an ERA within the 5.00s.
It’s unlikely that the veteran will hit one other gear at this stage of his profession; the Playing cards in all probability received’t get any greater than what they paid for ($12 million, with a staff choice for 2025). Nevertheless it’s price noting that, after a reasonably constant pitch combine from 2014-20, Gibson’s repertoire has modified each season since. In 2021, he developed a cutter, and in 2022, he used it much more. His cutter continued to return worth even with elevated utilization, however the remainder of his pitches appeared to endure in consequence, and I contemplated on the time what Gibson might do to seek out higher pitch pairings.
Properly, he discovered them in 2023. Whereas the cutter itself was considerably worse by run worth this season, that was offset by how nicely it paired together with his sweeper, which Gibson used sparingly in 2022 however turned to 18.5% of the time in 2023. The fitting-hander notched whiffs on 23% of his sweepers, and the pitch’s success was due at the very least partly to how the cutter served as a bridge between the brand new providing and Gibson’s sinker by sitting in between their horizontal actions. In the meantime, the sinker and sweeper labored nicely collectively by exhibiting a near-ideal (for the spin-mirroring impact) 7:15 spin-axis differential:
The one main draw back to the sweeper is that it has extra exaggerated platoon splits in comparison with a standard slider. Gibson didn’t use it practically as a lot in opposition to lefties, however maybe he grew so accustomed to pitching off of it to righties that his course of in opposition to southpaws wore down. In case you low cost 2020, lefties managed their greatest wOBA (.349) in opposition to Gibson since 2017 this previous season. He does have a standard slider too, and although he scrapped it totally in 2023, it is perhaps price bringing again occasionally to make use of in opposition to opposite-handed hitters.
But even when he can keep the sweeper’s success whereas neutralizing his platoon splits, any enhancements at this stage of the veteran’s profession are way more more likely to stave off decline than flip him into an ace. However so long as he can proceed to eat innings, Gibson serves as an apt counterweight to the different addition, or re-addition, to the Cardinals rotation this week. Whereas Gibson has by no means had an ERA beneath 3.62 or larger than 5.35 in 10 seasons since his full-season debut, Lynn has gone as little as 2.69 as not too long ago as 2021 whereas going as excessive as 5.73 this previous yr. Perhaps Lynn returns to type in his age-37 season and anchors the St. Louis rotation, however it’s equally possible that he’ll return to his 2023 type and be and not using a roster spot come summer time.
The factor is, the Cardinals already had a pair like that of their rotation: Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz. They aren’t precisely alike — Mikolas doesn’t have the observe report Gibson does and Matz hasn’t neared Lynn’s heights — however the identical ideas abide; Mikolas is a high-floor, low-ceiling innings-eater, whereas Matz is a unstable veteran who’s alternated between catastrophe and mid-rotation arm.
These 4 don’t a playoff rotation make. As issues stand, it wouldn’t get any higher with the fifth spot, which might in all probability be stuffed by a work-in-progress kind like Matthew Liberatore or Zach Thompson whereas prime prospects Tink Therefore and Tekoah Roby might use one other yr of seasoning. Mozeliak did say on the GM Conferences that the Playing cards wanted so as to add at the very least two starters, and with simply Gibson and Lynn within the financial institution as their first two reinforcements, followers ought to hope that the “at the very least” looms giant.
Ought to they select so as to add one other starter, the Cardinals would have loads of choices. Nola was simply the primary domino to fall in a market flush with expertise; whereas this yr’s free agent place participant class could also be weak, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell headline a wealth of succesful arms nonetheless out there. If none of these attraction to St. Louis, maybe on account of financial issues, the staff might leverage the weak place participant class to drift a few of its personal hitters in a commerce for one of many many starters regarded as available on the market — amongst them, Dylan Stop, Corbin Burnes, and Tyler Glasnow. After flirting with dealing from their glut of outfielders for a yr, maybe now could be the second the Cardinals have been ready for.
So the jury’s nonetheless out on whether or not the Cardinals’ offseason, not to mention their 2024 season, can be boring. However what’s clear is that they nonetheless have a number of work to do with the intention to return to the perennial competition standing that they’ve loved for a lot of the twenty first century.
