Cardinals reshape bullpen in a flurry
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals began the reconstruction of their bullpen Friday by designating for assignment veteran right-handed reliever Greg Holland, who had been signed to be their closer, and promoting prized righthander Dakota Hudson from Memphis.
The team announced the move Friday afternoon in a series of transactions that reshaped the bullpen in one afternoon.
In addition to designating Holland for assignment, the Cardinals did the same to lefthander Tyler Lyons. The Cardinals also traded right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala to Seattle for a minor-league reliever. And, the Cardinals placed left-hander Brett Cecil on the disabled list with a foot injury.
The Cardinals promoted left-hander Tyler Webb and right-hander Daniel Poncedeleon to the bullpen along with Hudson.
“Clearly things weren’t working out in the bullpen,” said John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations
for the Cardinals. “Making radical changes, or as many changes as we did … we had internal resources we wanted to give a chance to.”
Mozeliak said that, for now, Hudson and Poncedeleon both would be in the bullpen, as would Austin Gomber, who threw 61/3 hitless innings in his first start for the club Tuesday.
Luke Weaver was promoted, as planned, to start Friday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium.
The 32-year-old Holland, who had 41 saves for Colorado last season, was signed on opening day to a one-year, $14 million contract after failing to secure a multiyear deal as a free agent. After spending only a week of spring-training-like work in Jupiter, Fla., with the Cardinals’ Class A team, Holland could not get untracked.
The slider specialist never found command of that pitch or his fastball. He was 0-2 with no saves and a 7.92 ERA while walking as many hitters (22) as he struck out in 25 innings.
Mozeliak said he was “shocked” that Holland didn’t work out.
“You make a $14 million investment and obviously your expectations are very high,” he said. “We can all look back and have our own opinion as to why it didn’t work … the narrative of no spring training … should we have had him throw more innings at the minor-league level before activating him? All these things are fair questions, but the reality is that when he did get that chance, he did not have command. That was paralyzing to him.”
Hudson, 13-3 with a 2.50 ERA at Memphis, was a former No. 1 pick from Mississippi State who is one of the top ground-ball pitchers among major-league prospects. He has given up just one home run this season.
Tuivailala is 3-3 with a 3.69 ERA in 31 appearances for St. Louis, his second full season in the big leagues. He’ll immediately jump into the playoff race with Seattle holding a one-game lead over Oakland for the second wild card in the American League.
He also fulfills Seattle General Manager Jerry Dipoto’s goal of acquiring players that will be controllable for years to come. Tuivailala isn’t arbitration eligible until 2020.
“Sam is in the midst of his second consecutive solid big league season, and has pitched in parts of four major league seasons but has barely two years of service time,” Dipoto said. “We view this as a move for our present and our future.”
In exchange for Tuivailala, the Cardinals acquired righthander Seth Elledge from the Mariners and assigned him to Class AA Springfield. Elledge, 22, was a top-10 prospect for the Mariners, according to Baseball America, and he had 9 saves and a 1.17 ERA in 31 games for Class A Modesto.