What I Think: Cards lose Bader, gain Quintana and Montgomery on deadline day
A busy yet bittersweet day for St. Louis baseball fans.
This time yesterday, St. Louis Cardinals fans were hustling and bustling around their phones and computers, waiting for an announcement that would never come: SOTO TO THE CARDS FOR EVERY YOUNG PLAYER UNDER 25!
He went to San Diego, but the good news is he is now teammates with the Milwaukee Brewers’ former closer, Josh Hader. On a day where the Cards didn’t get the big guy, they still managed to get the necessary pieces and come out a better team.
It’s just today, they start the morning without one of their fan favorites on the roster: Harrison Bader. The Bronx native is going home to play for the Yankees after the Cards pulled off a last minute deadline deal. Seriously, I got into my pool at 4:40 pm CST, thinking it was over and done. Got out and Bader was headed east. Coming back in his place was a human brick shithouse in Gordon Montgomery.
The 6 foot 6 inch lefthander is quietly putting together a solid season, posting a 3.69 ERA with a sharp 3.91 FIP (fielding independent pitching). He averages 8 strikeouts per nine innings and walks less than two guys per nine, and doesn’t allow a ton of home runs. He comes from the high-flying and hitting AL East, and Cards fans hope he has a better transition than former AL East reliever, Brett Cecil.
Like their Monday acquisition, Jose Quintana, Montgomery fills a dire need for St. Louis. The starting pitching is what needed to be addressed at the deadline, a place the Cardinals had been absent from for years even if the division was up for grabs. They have encountered little problem lately in scoring 4-6 runs, but often have issues finishing games and collecting 27 outs. These two southpaws will help with that.
Montgomery and Quintana give the Cardinals a formidable rotation right now along with Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante, and the should-be-in-the-bullpen-now Dakota Hudson. Both new arms are cheap as well, with the former Yankee’s salary coming in at only $6 million this year. That sharply opposes the mighty hammer weight of Noah Syndergaard’s $21 million salary this year.
For a little less than a third of the cost of the former Angels pitcher (now in Philly), Montgomery has produced results that mirror Syndergaard’s work. He leads the American League with 21 starts, which is exactly what the team needed. The 114 innings sit right under Wainwright and Mikolas. Montgomery has produced 150 innings plus twice in his six year career, and that includes an injury-plagued 2019 season and pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Quintana is similarly unremarkable yet still durable and productive on the mound. The former White Sox and Cubs pitcher was withering away in Pittsburgh Pirates hell, compiling a nice ERA on a very bad team. Getting him in 2018 would have been better, but he can still pitch and came to STL with a higher fWAR than Waino and Mikolas. The trade cost young pitcher Johan Oviedo and minor leaguer Malcolm Nunez. Oviedo could turn into something beastly on the mound, but it’s not a sure thing. You have to give to get, right?
Do these two new players make the Cards World Series threats?
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