Chris Carpenter could return to Cardinals as a reliever
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak acknowledged Chris Carpenter could return to the team as a reliever later this year.
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
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The Cardinals have had a ton of bullpen issues in 2013, starting with closer Jason Motte missing the year with an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery. Fill-in closer Mitchell Boggs was just demoted to Triple-A as well. As a team, St. Louis owns an MLB-worst 5.67 bullpen ERA.
The club has tried some creative solutions to fix its relief pitching problem, including calling up top prospect Carlos Martinez. Another creative solution could be right-hander Chris Carpenter, who is expected to miss the season due to back, neck and shoulder injuries. Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the 2005 NL Cy Young Award winner recently started a throwing program in hopes of rejoining the team this year.
“I’m candidly optimistic and excited about him contributing,” said GM John Mozeliak. “We really haven’t focused on a timetable or anything ... We’re merely letting him go out and see what he can do. If he clears one hurdle, he proceeds to the next.”
Strauss says Mozeliak thinks a late June/early July return is reasonable even though there is no formal timetable in place. Carpenter is not eligible to be activated off the 60-day DL until the end of May.
By returning as a reliever, Carpenter would both help shore up the team's biggest need -- St. Louis starters lead MLB with a 2.07 ERA, so their rotation is plenty strong -- and significantly cut down on the time he needs to prepare for the season. When asked about a return, he simply said, “I want to do what I can to help."
Carpenter, 38, has not pitched out of the bullpen regularly since early in the 1998 season, when he was with the Blue Jays. He pitched to a 3.71 ERA in three late-season starts in 2012 after missing most of the year due to thoracic outlet syndrome. Carpenter, who has a lengthy injury history, threw a league-high 237 1/3 innings in 2011 plus another 36 during the postseason.
Right-hander Edward Mujica has seized the team's closer job by posting a 2.25 ERA while going a perfect 7 for 7 in save chances. Righty Trevor Rosenthal has been solid as his setup man (3.18 ERA), but the rest of the bullpen crew has been sketchy.
The Cardinals entered Saturday with an 18-11 record, good for first place in the NL Central. The poor bullpen performance has yet to really undermine the team's place in the standings.
