The Cardinals tried to address their need in the back of the rotation with today’s acquisition of Jake Westrbrook from Cleveland in a three-way trade with San Diego. Ryan Ludwick is headed to the West Coast, and the Padres sent two minor leaguers to Cleveland.
Westbrook is an injury-prone right-hander who missed the entire 2009 season with arm injuries. So far in 2010 he’s 6-7 with a 4.41 xFIP. He’s an extreme ground-ball pitcher (GB/FB ratio is 1.87 this season, 2.64 career), doesn’t strike out many (about 5 per 9 innings) and walks a lot of guys (about 3 per 9 innings). His fastball averages 91 and he has 4 other pitches to go with it. Shifting to a more hitter-neutral park will help him, but the Jake Westbrook we saw in Cleveland will be 95% of the Jake Westbrook we see in St Louis.
This trade isn’t possible without the maturation Jon Jay has shown this season, especially since the start of his second call-up stint with St. Louis (.456/.525/.706). Ludwick has been a big part of the Cardinals teams over the past 3 years, but he’s in the last year of arbitration following this season, he’s making $5.4M this season, and he’s a free agent in 2012. With Jay proving he’s Major-League ready (even though everybody knows he’s not going to hit .456 the rest of the season), the Cardinals suddenly found themselves with extra outfielders and a need for starting pitching. Looking ahead, if St Louis didn’t move Ludwick they might have declined to offer him arbitration this season (and eaten the draft pick they would have gotten if they had offered and he declined) just to cut some payroll. Jay makes the league minimum, and they want to sign some guy named Pujols to a long-term deal this off-season.
They have certainly gotten younger. Ludwick is a plus outfielder who is enjoying his best season statistically defensively (+5 on the Dewan scale, although the data only goes back to 2005 on Bill James’ site), so he’ll be missed. Jay has shown some defensive aptitude so far, so this is a good gamble for the Cardinals.
Westbrook’s arrival probably means Suppan is done. I’d be willing to bet today is Jeff’s last start as a Cardinal in 2010. If Kyle Lohse is able to get back to the rotation in August, Blake Hawskworth (I would guess) would shift back to the bullpen or get sent back to Memphis.
It’s a move the Cardinals had to make. Welcome to the pennant race, Jake Westbrook.
And Fair Winds and Following Seas to Ryan Ludwick. Good luck in San Diego.
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