According to Fox Sports’s Ken Rosenthal, the St. Louis Cardinals are acquiring former closerSteve Cishekfrom the Miami Marlins. Reports had indicated that the Cardinals had interest in the righthanded, sidearm-throwing reliever in recent days. The Cardinals will send Double-A relief pitcherKyle Barracloughto the Marlins in return for Cishek.
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The 29-year-old Cishek, a 6-foot-6, 215-pounder, was the Marlins’ primary closer from midway through 2012 until early in the 2015 season. Over that time, he had 91 saves in 105 opportunities. He began this season in a rut, blowing four of his first seven save opportunities and throwing for a 7.76 ERA over the season’s first two months. After spending 10 days with Double-A Jacksonville in early June to rebuild his confidence, Cishek has come back and been very effective, giving up just one earned run over 12.2 innings. While he still struggled a bit with allowing hitters to make contact in June, Cishek has been fantastic during July, holding hitters to a .182 average over his last six appearances.
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Cishek figures to be another late-inning option for a Cardinals bullpen that has been very effective this year but perhaps has been overworked, particularly eighth-inning setup manKevin Siegristand closerTrevor Rosenthal. His presence will likely eliminate the Cardinals’ need to rely on longtime minor-league journeymen likeMiguel SocolovichandMarcus Hatleyfor innings, and assuming thatJordan Waldenmakes a successful return from the shoulder ailment he’s dealt with for much of 2015, the Cardinals will have a pretty intimidating late-inning group for the stretch run with Cishek, Walden, Siegrist, and Rosenthal.
The 25-year-old Barraclough, a 2012 seventh-rounder out of St. Mary’s, was having his best minor-league season to date. After beginning the year by allowing just one earned run on nine hits and nine walks through 15 innings at High-A Palm Beach, Barraclough was promoted to Double-A Springfield in mid-May and has also been effective there, posting a 3.28 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, and .211 opponent batting average with 28 strikeouts and 20 walks through 24.2 innings. While Barraclough is putting himself in good position to be a future big-league bullpen piece, it’s clear that he needs to improve his control before he’s ready to face major-league hitters.
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