2019 VEB Community Projections: Brett Cecil

The Injured List is, of course, a place for injured players. It’s also kind of like a storage unit for pieces that the Cardinals don’t have room for and can’t put anywhere else - like the minor leagues.

That’s where they have put Brett Cecil.

Cecil has struggled with his mechanics this spring after losing 42 pounds in the offseason. But in announcing that he would be starting the season on the IL a few days ago, it was also reported that Cecil was dealing with some forearm pain after throwing a 100 PITCH BULLPEN SESSION!

Cecil told the P-D that he “had fun” throwing the unusually high pitch-count bullpen, but felt numbness in two of his fingers afterwards.

As for someone who hasn’t “had fun”: Cardinal fans since the team acquired Cecil, who still has two years (counting this year) left on the 4-year, $30.5 million deal. Cecil has provided a grand total of 0.5 WAR in the first two years of the contract, and at this point it’s getting hard to imagine Cecil taking the mound again for the Cardinals, let alone providing value.

So why doesn’t the team just cut Cecil? Well, they’ve got this storage unit, you see...

The Cardinals will be paying Brett Cecil through the 2020 season no matter what happens. So as long as they can put him on the 60-day Storage Unit, there’s really no reason not to. It moves Cecil off the 40-man roster, so he’s not blocking anybody. Cecil continues to hang out at the complex in Florida, get healed and work towards finding his mechanics again. I can’t see any reason to be optimistic that he manages to do those things, but there’s a non-zero chance that he does... so why not give it a shot?