Building unity in crowded Cardinals’ bullpen is key to nailing down wins in 2024

Assuming clean bills of health, Giovanny Gallegos, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, Keynan Middleton and JoJo Romero will be in the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen on opening day at Dodger Stadium. There’s no mystery about their placement or their prominence, and all that’s left to determine is who will join them.

Major League Baseball’s roster restrictions preclude teams from carrying more than 13 pitchers, and with five in the starting rotation, filling out the remaining spots is a fairly simple math problem. What’s more complicated is building a cohesive unit with the same sort of prominent leadership that has been so readily advertised in the starting rotation.

“I think so,” Helsley said when asked if he, as the closer, bears responsibility for seizing a leadership role among that group. “Me and Gio [Gallegos] have been here the longest, and guys like Kittredge and Keynan who we signed, we’ve got some good guys down there who can get a lot of big outs and help this team win down the stretch.”

“I think that’s one reason why I want to stay in the bullpen with those guys,” Gallegos said. “We have a lot of young guys. [Be] a good example every day, try to be ready no matter what.”

Both Kittredge and Middleton are coming off seasons shortened by injury, but both also have sufficient track records of both results and measurable “stuff” that made them appealing to the Cardinals. Makeup, too, matters; Kittredge was a veteran in a young Tampa Bay bullpen composed of many interchangeable parts, and Middleton’s vocal displeasure of the clubhouse culture with the Chicago White Sox was less about personal discontent and more about concern for the career paths of teammates.

“The core group was so solid as far as just kind of having a cohesive unit,” Kittredge said. “We kind of just had this trust and relationship where you knew whoever the guy that was going to come up was just going to fit right in.”

“I’m trying to feed my family while I’m out there on the field, so I don’t have any friends, really,” Middleton said. “Except the guys on my team, and even sometimes we can butt heads too. And that’s alright. It all comes from a good place.”

As far as Romero, 2023’s dismal drag down the stretch provided him with perhaps more opportunity than any other player in the organization. As early as the day Jordan Hicks was traded to Toronto, Romero was trusted with a prominent role in the back end of the bullpen and thrived, striking out 20 opponents and walking only one in 14 ⅓ innings last August.

“We have a good relationship down there,” Romero said. “Being able to kind of compete down there and have a little friendly competition can be fun, but when everything clicks together, it’s going to be fun to be a part of.”

Manager Oliver Marmol conceded the obviousness of that group of five on Tuesday morning and described the team as planning to put “the three best out of that bucket” of other options, acknowledging that at least one needs to provide length from the bullpen.

“Usually you want to protect that rotation early in the season,” he said.

With no off days in the season’s first eight games – four in Los Angeles, three in San Diego, and then the home opener on April 4 – the Cardinals could opt for a modified six-man rotation, highlighting the importance of Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. Those two are set to start Saturday’s split squad Grapefruit League openers, and from there, the competition is on.

Indeed, despite Marmol’s protestations to the contrary, it’s easy to imagine a competition for the three remaining bullpen spots that breaks down into categories – one of Liberatore or Thompson, one of John King or Andre Pallante as a sinkerballer who neutralizes lefty hitters, and one from the remaining group which includes Ryan Fernandez, Riley O’Brien, Nick Robertson and Wilking Rodríguez, among others.

Fernandez, a Rule 5 draft pick, will have to be on the active roster or be offered back to the Boston Red Sox, unless a separate transaction is worked out. That restriction has given pitchers in his position a leg up in previous years, but for a more remote project pitcher with limited experience above Double-A, he would likely need to convincingly beat out others in camp rather than benefiting from than potential leg up.

With five weeks remaining in spring training, any roster assembly would be little more than an educated guess. Health remains the inescapable variable, and if the Cardinals make it through spring without an injury to a pitcher who’s contending to make the team, it might be the first spring in living memory in which that’s true.

“I think it feels good to know your teammates trust in you and believe in you and your manager believes in you to be out there,” Helsley said. “You want to help shorten the game.”

With the focus on increased innings from starters on the front end of games, the Cardinals believe they’ve taken the necessary steps to secure that stability at the back.