FANGRAPHS BRYCE BALL UPGRADE
FANGRAPHS BRYCE BALL SERIES

FANGRAPHS BRYCE BALL UPGRADE

Before then, though, he’ll give the Rangers a marginal upgrade over what they had before every time he enters a game, and that kind of thing matters in tight divisional races. He might get pushed down the pecking order when some of the team’s starters head bullpenward in the playoffs. Stratton is hardly a closer, but he’s a reasonable middle reliever. Grant Anderson, Yerry Rodríguez, Spencer Howard, and John King (dealt in this trade) were all middle inning sieves, turning small leads into small deficits and small deficits into big ones. Stratton is essentially a throw-in, but he’s a valuable one for a Texas bullpen that was looking thin at the bottom.

FANGRAPHS BRYCE BALL SERIES

Montgomery makes that series slightly less likely to come up in the first place, and he’s a meaningful upgrade as the third starter in the Wild Card round should that unfortunate circumstance come to pass. But a strong top three is really important given that we think they’re basically a coin flip to win the division – finish behind the Astros and a three game playoff series awaits. He’ll help in the regular season, of course, and give them tons of redundancy in case of injury.

Montgomery is a cut above that foursome, and that’s very important for the Rangers. Dane Dunning, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, and Martín Pérez are all cromulent options, and the three who don’t draw a rotation assignment might play up out of the bullpen. Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi (health permitting) are an above-average top duo, Montgomery is overqualified as a third starter, and after him there’s a whole grab bag of guys I wouldn’t feel either great or terrible about as my last playoff starter. After acquiring Max Scherzer on Saturday, their playoff rotation looked solid. This one is pretty straightforward: Montgomery slots into a hilariously deep Texas rotation. Here, I’m just going to focus on how these three fit with their new teams, and the Cardinals’ general strategy from here on out. Eric Longenhagen is covering the prospects who are coming back to the Gateway City in a separate piece. Montgomery and Stratton are headed to the Rangers meanwhile, better hope Hicks has a passport, because he’s now a Blue Jay.

In two deals on Sunday, the Cardinals sent out Jordan Montgomery, Jordan Hicks, and Chris Stratton. With the deadline quickly approaching, they’re starting to turn those players into prospects. The silver lining? The Cardinals had a ton of expiring contracts coming into the season, which means they have a ton of players to trade. But this kind of collapse – 47-60 and last place in the division – is unheard of. Sometimes they lose those battles – the Cubs put together a nice run in the mid-2010s, the Reds had their time in the sun before that, and the Brewers have been a thorn in St. They’re used to living in the NL Central penthouse, looking askance at whatever team happens to battle them for supremacy in a given season.

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