Cardinals Claim Jorge Alcalá
By Darragh McDonald | August 7, 2025 at 12:51pm CDT
The Cardinals announce that they have claimed right-hander Jorge Alcalá off waivers from the Red Sox. Boston designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Cards had several 40-man roster openings from their deadline dealings. Alcalá is out of options, so the Cards will need to make a corresponding active roster move once he reports to the team.
30 YO
6.64 ERA
1.764 WHIP
(and since we need another lefty in the pen, MO gets a righty)
Last edited by 82birds on 07 Aug 2025 13:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
82birds wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:12 pm
Cardinals Claim Jorge Alcalá
By Darragh McDonald | August 7, 2025 at 12:51pm CDT
The Cardinals announce that they have claimed right-hander Jorge Alcalá off waivers from the Red Sox. Boston designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Cards had several 40-man roster openings from their deadline dealings. Alcalá is out of options, so the Cards will need to make a corresponding active roster move once he reports to the team.
30 YO
6.64 ERA
1.764 WHIP
Impressive stats.... He's gonna need some minor league options.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
You do know we are not winning anything this year, right?
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Winning games the rest of this year isn't going to do much other than cost us draft position
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Winning games the rest of this year isn't going to do much other than cost us draft position
He had a 3.24 ERA with a 1.02 WHIP last year for the Twins.
Yea, he sucks this year, but not a bad flier. Nature of the game with relievers. Reminds me of when we got Luis Garcia. He turned out well. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t and you cut the loss.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Newsflash. We're probably going to be doing a lot more losing than winning for the rest of this year regardless of what this guy does or does not bring to the table. And, unless I'm mistaken, we're unable to get a top 10 (top 5? I dunno) pick next year regardless of how well we do or don't do.
Playing with house money as far as I'm concerned. I'm content to embrace the suck. I'm as mad as anyone that we've kicked the can another year, but it does lead to more stress-free baseball from where I'm sitting.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
I thought the same thing when we picked up Luis Garcia in 2021 after he was released from the Yankees. He had been with their AAA team. His most recent MLB time was a 7.56 ERA with Texas in 2020 and a career 4.26 ERA/1.53 WHIP, not much different than this guy. Garcia put up a 3.24 ERA with a 0.99 WHIP for us and played a role in that 17 game winning streak.
You never know with relievers. And after trading Helsley/Maton/Matz they probably could use a MLB arm that recently had a 3.31 ERA for Boston over 19 games and had a 3.24 ERA with a 1.02 WHIP last year for Minnesota.
One thing I’ve learned is Mo isn’t bad at picking up scrap heap relievers. He sure has trouble with getting elite prospects to produce, but the scrap heap relievers are his specialty.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Best you look at his entire career before commenting.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Winning games the rest of this year isn't going to do much other than cost us draft position
This team looks like they will draft in the 12-15 range so I don't think positioning is a concern. As for Alcala he was solid prior to this year. He is arb eligible for '26 so if he performs well down the stretch he could be in next year's pen.
Strummer Jones wrote: ↑07 Aug 2025 13:19 pm
Well, what's the harm.
If he sucks, then we move on. If he's good, then maybe we've hit luck and he can be a decent piece and fit in that Riley O'Brien "middle innings fireballer" role that he used to have.
The harm is, we keep picking up [shirt]ty players. The [shirt]ty players [shirt] the bed, and we lose. We keep losing because of them. Thats the harm.
Newsflash. We're probably going to be doing a lot more losing than winning for the rest of this year regardless of what this guy does or does not bring to the table. And, unless I'm mistaken, we're unable to get a top 10 (top 5? I dunno) pick next year regardless of how well we do or don't do.
Playing with house money as far as I'm concerned. I'm content to embrace the suck. I'm as mad as anyone that we've kicked the can another year, but it does lead to more stress-free baseball from where I'm sitting.
Yep. The focus of the front office on our pitching for the remainder of 2025 is not "winning", its "innings".