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Other Under The Radar Bullpen Candidates

With the promotion of Seth Maness, the Cardinals have shown that they are willing to go to the minor leagues to try to fix their bullpen. Let's look at a few more major league bullpen candidates who are currently toiling in the minor leagues.

By jeff_underscore
Jeff Gross

Carlos Martinez - RHP - The rumors were getting hot and heavy that before Maness' call up, Martinez might be the next Cardinals pitcher to go right from double-A to the majors. Martinez 2013 season was delayed by visa issues getting out of the Dominican and getting back into the US, otherwise, he likely would have been the call. His high 90s arsenal has a lot of scouts and evaluators counting the days until the Cardinals can find a place for him in St. Louis. He should be moved up to triple-A soon and probably into St. Louis before the season is over.

Jorge Rondon - RHP - Rondon is already on the 40-man roster as the Cardinals protected him from the Rule 5 draft last offseason. Andy wrote up the hard-throwing righty last year. He can throw hard and strike guys out. He's got the perfect bullpen profile for the Cardinals.

John Gast - LHP - Gast and Tyler Lyons make up the (near) future of the Cardinals left-handed pitcher pipeline, which has been quite dry of late. He's been the Memphis Redbirds best starting pitcher so far in 2013. He's not yet on the 40 man roster, but that can be dealt with obviously. His career FIP against lefthanders is 3.75, which is just .35 lower than his number against righthanders. And of course, he still has that killer pickoff move if he allows a baserunner to first.

Tyler Lyons - LHP - The other head of the two headed Memphis southpaw snake (well, five-headed if you count Additon, Browning and Freeman too!) is the more polished lefty specialist option, as he has struck out a quarter of the lefthanders he has faced in his minor league career and had a career 3.48 FIP against lefthanders. Strikeouts are king in the bullpen and Lyons brings them in spades.

Keith Butler - RHP - Butler already has made one move this year, from double-A Springfield to triple-A Memphis as he went from the Springfield closers job to the Memphis bullpen. He'll make a bullpen in the majors at some point, but he's behind a lot of other names right now.

Victor Marte - RHP - Just. Say. No.

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