St. Louis Cardinals Trade Sam Freeman to Texas Rangers
The St. Louis Cardinals made a move to clear out their crowded bullpen competition on Saturday morning, trading lefthanded reliever Sam Freeman to the Texas Rangers for cash considerations or a player to be named later.
The 27-year-old Freeman, an undersized lefty who gets everything out of his frame and often throws in the mid-90s, was considered a long shot to make the roster this spring. Though Freeman was a key part of the Cardinals’ bullpen for much of 2014, posting a 2.61 ERA and 1.39 WHIP with a .236 opponent batting average over 44 games, he had fallen to no better than third on the Cardinals’ lefthanded reliever depth chart.
Sidearming specialist Randy Choate, who was often misused and put up poor numbers over the first half of 2014, found a way to endear himself to the organization once again and is unsecured upon this spring. Kevin Siegrist, the most versatile pitcher among the Cardinals’ lefty relievers, has re-established himself this year after struggling with injuries in 2014 and appears set to make the Opening Day roster. Even if the Cardinals were to keep three lefties, the third would likely be rookie Marco Gonzales (assuming that he loses the fifth starter competition to fellow lefty Jaime Garcia).
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With Freeman out of options this spring while preparing for his fourth big-league campaign, the Cardinals would have had to put him through waivers in order to return him to Triple-A Memphis. With the stellar numbers that he put up in the majors last season, he was likely to make it through unclaimed, so the Cardinals took advantage and were able to get some potential value for him from Texas.
The move works out well for the Rangers, who have struggled to find a lefthanded pitcher for their big-league bullpen. They brought major-league veterans Joe Beimel and Michael Kirkman to spring training but have since released them, and 23-year-old Alex Claudio, who has just 15 games of MLB experience, looked like he was going to be the club’s top lefty reliever.
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While Freeman was effective during 2014 and would have been a nice component to the Cardinals’ lefthanded depth this season, they shouldn’t be too hurt without him. In addition to Siegrist and Choate, the Cardinals will have Gonzales, Nick Greenwood, Tyler Lyons, and John Gast in the fold as lefties with big-league experience should an injury occur. Beyond that multitude of already-tested depth, the Cardinals could utilize Tim Cooney, a lefty ranked as the organization’s 10th-best prospect who profiles long-term as a starter but could break in as a reliever, or Dean Kiekhefer, who experienced success as a lefty reliever in his first go-round at Triple-A Memphis in 2014.