The St. Louis Cardinals are showing life but the team’s latest roster move shows that the Redbirds are still grasping for straws with pitching.
Coming into the season that the Braves, Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Padres and St. Louis Cardinals were the best contenders in the National League. More than a month into the season, there have been mixed results from that group, but none as disappointing as the Redbirds.
After an already-bad 10-16 start, the Cardinals went on an eight-game losing streak, which dumped them to a dismal 10-24 on the year. The good news is that the club has now bounced back with two straight wins. The bad news is that Oli Marmol and Co. are still clearly grasping at straws for some answers.
The biggest area where the team is looking to improve, or at least needs to, is with the team’s pitching. St. Louis ranks 19th in MLB in team ERA, which is actually improved from where they were. Given that they’ve also been struggling at the plate, the pitching hasn’t given them a chance.
So now they are trying to shake things up in a move that wreaks of desperation, recalling right-hander Andre Pallante and optioning JoJo Romero on Tuesday.
STL Cardinals news: Andre Pallante recalled, JoJo Romero optioned to Triple-A
To be fair, this is clearly a move regarding two players with options and what the bullpen needs. Romero has been solid out of the bullpen but the Cardinals need more righty help in relief, thus leading to the move to recall Pallante.
At the same time, though, bringing Pallante back up from Triple-A really shows how desperate this team is for answers when it comes to pitching.
Pallante, who made his MLB debut last year and was solid (3.17 ERA but a 1.42 WHIP in 47 appearances, 10 of them starts), but he’s been a disaster this season. In 10 appearances as a reliever, the 24-year-old has an overwhelmingly bad 7.56 ERA and 1.92 WHIP going against him. Over just 8.1 innings, he’s given up 12 hits, four walks two home runs and seven earned runs while striking out only seven.
Again, this is a guy who was much better a season ago, but the fact of the matter is that he’s been unusable this season with the way he’s pitched. So for the Cardinals to call him up really speaks to Marmol and the club trying to find anything that will work and stick on the mound.