The process of creating the 2015 Cardinals continued with two significant moves on Tuesday.
Matt Belisle, a RH relief pitcher, was signed to a one year deal worth 3.5M. While at the non-tender deadline last night Daniel Descalso was not offered a contract, effectively ending his time with the Cardinals and making him a free-agent.
The ‘Dirty Dan’ non-tender wasn’t a surprise. His playing time was significantly diminished in 2014 (358 plate appearances in ’13 vs. 184 in ’15) and the addition of Crooning Ty Kelly was the death knell for DD as a Cardinal.
His stat line was average. Since being called up in 2010 for a cup of MLB coffee, he played in 529 games, batted .243 and scored 145 runs. His oWAR was a combined 3.4 and dWAR a combined -1.2. OBP was .313. After making 1.29M in ’14, the Cardinals may have been able to push his salary down a bit in arbitration, but he was still going to cost 1M+ for a backup IF position.
Doesn’t mean we won’t miss the dude. The stats don’t really capture big moments. And after being part of 11 postseason celebrations with the Cardinals (check out this good piece by Stan McNeal of FSMW), we’ll always have memories like these to call back:
Best of luck to Dan, wherever he lands. I’m sure when his playing days are over, anyone in St. Louis would be happy to buy him a beer.
Baseball pushes on.
And any cost savings realized by letting Descalso go were offset by the 3.5M investment in RHP Matt Belisle.
3.5M? For Matt Belisle?
That was my initial reaction. Maybe the harshest referendum on Colorado Rockies baseball is that I just kind of assumed that Matt Belisle had stopped playing baseball. I vaguely remember him back with the Reds in the late aughts, but hadn’t heard his name in years.
Turns out the dude has been cranking out 70+ game seasons for the past 4 out of 5 years in the obscurity of Denver. The fifth season (’14) he had 66 games played.
Is this the signing that pushes up the opening day secondary ticket market by 20%? Nah. People are probably going to forget about Matt Belisle until the first time he trots out of the bullpen this upcoming April.
But with the addition of Jordan Walden (via the Shelby Miller trade) and now Belisle, the Cardinals are in the process of putting together a solid unit of secondary pitching.
RHP Bullpen:
- Walden (8th inning)
- Belisle
- Maness
- Rosenthal (Closer)
- Tuivailala
LHP Bullpen:
- Choate
- Siegrist
- Freeman
- Gonzales (Can slide into SP, if needed)
- Lyons
This assumes (as is pretty safe) that Carlos Martinez goes into the starting rotation. To me, it looks like the real wild card is Kevin Siegrist. Can he be the pitcher he was in ’13? If so, this is shaping into a nice bullpen.
Welcome, Matt, to St. Louis. Good to see you again after all these years. The Cardinals needed another Matt.
Photo: Roxpile | Sports Kings
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
