OCTOBER 4: It’s an $11MM guarantee, the Associated Press reports. Gallegos receives a $500K signing bonus, followed by successive salaries of $4.5MM and $5.5MM for his final seasons of arbitration eligibility. There’s a $500K buyout on the 2025 option, which has a base value of $6.5MM. The option price can escalate by as much as $3.5MM depending on his games finished tally during the 2024 campaign. It’d increase $500K apiece at 20, 26 and 31 games finished and would add an extra $1MM at each of 36 and 41 games.
OCTOBER 3: The Cardinals announced that they have signed right-hander Giovanny Gallegos to a two-year extension with a club option for 2025. Gallegos had two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, with this deal buying out those years and potentially one free agent year as well.
Gallegos, 31, came over to St. Louis alongside Chasen Shreve in the July 2018 trade that sent Luke Voit to the Yankees. He got a very brief stint with the Cards in the months after that trade, throwing 1 1/3 innings over two appearances. But in the four seasons since then, he has established himself as a mainstay of the club’s relief corps.
From 2019 to 2021, he made 155 appearances and threw 169 1/3 innings. In that time, he registered a 2.76 ERA with excellent strikeout and walk rates of 32.4% and 6.2%, respectively. He earned his way into high leverage situations in that time, notching 19 saves and 44 holds in that period.
He reached arbitration for the first time after last season, with he and the club agreeing to a $2.41MM salary for 2022. Since signing that deal, he’s been putting up very similar results to what he had done in the previous three campaigns. He has a 2.91 ERA in 58 2/3 innings with a 31.2% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate, earning another 14 saves and another 12 holds.
Based on his fourth straight season of strong performance, Gallegos would have been due an arbitration raise for 2023 and likely another for 2024, as long as he stayed healthy. Of course, with a pitcher, the health factor could always change the calculus in a hurry. Instead, Gallegos will have the security of knowing his earnings for the next two seasons are locked in. For giving Gallegos that guarantee, the Cards will have the ability to secure his services for an extra season.
“So excited,” Gallegos tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I feel so happy. I don’t have the word exactly for how I’m feeling. Right now, I’ve got an extension with the team. My confidence is 100%, 200%.” Goold also spoke to John Mozeliak, the club’s president of baseball operations. “He really wanted to stay and be a part of the St. Louis Cardinals moving forward,” Mozeliak says. “I think it really was a win-win for both parties. This gives him a little peace of mind as well.”
I’ve been saying this guy is the most underrated relief pitcher in baseball with his mariano rivera-like whips for the past 4 years. I haven’t checked in a while but he was the best pitcher in baseball at preventing base runners.
EDIT: best pitcher in baseball at preventing baserunners over the past 4 years I should say. When I checked he was right above hader and verlander if I remember correctly.
Signed to an extension and promptly walks the basesloaded and gets a loss, great way to begin an extension? Gio has been great for the Cardinals. Hopefully he can find his rhythm for the postseason, we need him.
That was a stinker for sure.
They won the voit trade and the bader trade.
Way too early on the Bader trade and fairly even on Voit. It’ll depend on how Gallegos does the next couple years and how Montgomery and Bader compare this postseason and 2023.
The Yankees got the value they wanted from Voit at the time, and the Cards got value too. That’s generally how you want deals to go.
Montgomery for Bader seems like a good deal for both teams. I liked Monty, but I wouldn’t reverse the deal now that Bader is back. My main question was about the timing. For the Yankees, it seemed like it would have made more sense in the off season, but in retrospect, the deal didn’t cost them in the standings. Both teams dealt from surplus. Two well-run orgs. They win for a reason.
RobM you understand baseball trades like we all should. Both teams should win in a trade. Value for value.
Rob, excellent points. I believe your last paragraph is perfectly articulated. The Monty trade is a win for both orgs. I’m in favor of the trade and wouldn’t give Bader back now that we have him.
Biggest problem for me was the timing and the potential cost to the Yankees (the division lead). Thankfully, with the benefit of hindsight, we know it didn’t result in their ultimate implosion. I do say the Yanks were lucky though. They were in the process of imploding…
BTW, Dominguez absolutely raked after his promotion to AA Somerset. He finished strong, going 3-5 in their final championship game with two HRs. He also hit a HR in their last game. Seems as though it’s finally starting to click for the young buck.
Yankee fans want Hicks off the team, or at minimum, off of CF. Thing is, the CF position across MLB is either incredibly disappointing or challenging.
Short of one of the greatest players ever (Trout), who isn’t gong anywhere, the teams in good shape in CF have discovered their CFers from within, or before they broke out. The Orioles aren’t going to easily move Mullins. The Braves struck gold with Harris. Buxton is skilled, but he makes Stanton look like Cal Ripken health wise, yet the reason the Twins signed him is they know the options to replace him are few or expensive. Brian Reynolds is a good player, but he likely is better off moving to one of the corner spots. Springer holds down CF, but he’s also injury prone, expensive, and will soon be moved to a corner position too.
Most CF options have issues. Cashman saw that, hence, why he moved to deal from strength to fill his CF need in 2023 now. Bonus is he should help in the postseason this year. That leads us to Jasson Dominguez. Bader is gone after 2023, so they clearly want Dominguez to take over. He hit better in A+ than he did in A, and while he had a slow start at AA in only a few ABs, he crushed it in the postseason, basically winning the championship, going 5-9 with three HRs. I suspect he’ll start 2023 at AA, with a quick promotion to AAA. He’s still a teenager, but he doesn’t seem overwhelmed at all as he moves up.
Rob, exactly right. What’s even more impressive to me is that this is his first full season of pro ball!!! People were hammering Dominguez (mostly just anti-Yankees folks) and the kid had not even played a full season of pro ball yet.
Nevertheless, the results this year were promising for sure:
“Jasson Dominguez kept getting better as the year went on
Games 1-12; .204/.218/.278
Games 13-31; .263/.341/.461
Games 32-84; .276/.408/.470
Games 85-125; .319/.422/.575”
I found a nice little snippet on PSA about him, from which I pulled the above nugget of information. All in all, the results are promising. I’m looking forward to see if this continues in the AFL, but I agree, either way he’s starting AA next season.
How about that Velasquez kid, huh?
Considering Voit doesn’t play for New York anymore… I’d say it’s safe to say Cardinals won that trade. Bader Montgomery trade I can see s being more balanced if Bader can stay healthy, even if he doesn’t hit in New York, he’s an extraordinary Outfield talent
I suggest it’s not safe to say since that’s not really how deals work. What you’re seemingly suggesting is how long a team controls a player trumps everything else. Context matters. If a team trades a player with six years of control for a player with three years of control, that doesn’t mean the team getting the six-year player wins. Teams trade prospects with years of control often to fill a need in a specific year or two at a position where they might be weak Yes, it’s also possible the team getting three months of a player will “win” a deal.
For whatever it’s worth (not much), the WAR delivered in this deal is basically even as of today. The problem I have is WAR isn’t great at determining the full value of relievers or 1B’man. (Just my opinion, although it’s shared by many.) The Yankees got what they needed at that time; the Cardinals got what they wanted.
There does seem to be a desire for fans to declare their teams “won” a deal. They make those declarations within minutes of the deal being completed. Or, when their player has a hot streak, they’ll demand a reassessment if the media prior said they lost the deal. In this case, both teams won by getting what they wanted. I know that’s not the hot take many fans like to hear.
Very interesting to see us extend a guy who could be among the most affected by the pitch clock next year. Hopefully he’s able to adjust
So you’re saying he should have been DFA’d? The guy has been one of the best relievers in baseball for 4 years lol.
No, he was still under team control for two more years. They could’ve waited a year before giving him an extension to see how he adjusts to the pitch clock.
St Louis Post Dispatch reports Gallegos camp had been asking for the Arb buyout for a while and he is ecstatic about getting it. Probably settles financial goals at home in Mexico. Team goodwill without risking much.
That’s not what he said.
He’s saying that signing a guy to a two year deal who has two years of arbitration for cost certainty was a bad move which is a kind of a curious thought. They aren’t ever going to release him so tell me what the issue is?
To think the best pitcher in baseball at preventing base runners is somehow going to be terrible now that there is a pitch clock makes zero sense.
diddlez
Do you watch any games? Gallegos was a roller coaster this season. His velocity was down a little and his command within the strike zone was spotty at best. He got a lot of hitters to chase pitches out of the zone, but it wasn’t because of his pinpoint control. He benefitted a lot from having an excellent defense behind him. He is an incredibly slow worker. I fully support 76’s comment.
He’s been great this year and for the past four years. One of the very best relievers in all of baseball in fact. He just signed a very team friendly deal and I couldn’t be happier. I’m sorry you guys think he can’t pitch for whatever reason.
The cardinals sign one of the best relievers in baseball to an extension and cardinals fans everywhere go nuts. We might watch the most baseball out of any other fans but we’re still collectively a bunch of numbskulls when it comes to understanding the game.
You are liking your own comments the second you post them. You are still deliberately failing to address the points made, which are reasonable. And it’s not as if anything would have been lost had the Cards waited a year to see how Gallegos adjusts to the pitch clock. Maybe he becomes more expensive, maybe not, but at least they’d know how the adjustment went. That’s all that was being propsed. Reasonable. Not numbskulls.
You stay living in a fugue state if you think cardinals fans aren’t the least informed bunch in baseball. Literally the only group of fans that could get upset at an extension for one of the best relievers in baseball. At least we buy tickets and pack that unit with our ignorance day after day.
He’s a Cubs fan. No doubt about it.
It’s like you’re misunderstanding EVERY facet of what’s being discussed here and you think others are in a “fugue state” because they don’t believe this thread proves that Cardinals fans are dumb. Alrighty then.
I think people who view this extension as a bad thing are absolute morons, and I am not surprised for one second that it is fellow Cardinals fans who are the most upset.
You say “EVERY facet” like this is complex at all. It’s a good deal for one of the best relievers in the game and you’re a thick bozo living in an alternate reality if you can’t see that.
Well Diddler, your comments didn’t age well. Gallegos just walked three straight hitters and lost the game in the 9th. It took approximately 45 min for him to throw 19 pitches.
I actually like Gallego. But you not so much. Go figure.
Diddlez, did you watch the game tonight? Gio walked the basesloaded and Jojo walked in the winning run, Gio got the loss… not a great way to start an extension…. against the 99 loss pirates too…. Gio has had a pretty rough year
@Cosmo2
Yeah go figure I guess. You don’t like my opinion so you don’t like me. Honestly I don’t know if I’ve come across a bigger baby on this website but you also must know I don’t care at all if some anon loser on the internet likes me, right?
@Hippyripper
Yeah he’s terrible isn’t he? They should trade him while they still can. 2.83 FIP 0.893 WHIP 11.1 K/9 over the past 4 years but he’s absolute garbage.
Definitely interesting, but not surprising at all… look at Martinez, Carpenter, Holland, Grergerson, leake, fowler, and Cecil… not great deals but it follows that trend.
@CardsFan, I’ve been trained from experience that when I see a long thread of fans arguing, that I’ll arrive at the top and find it was started with a trolling comment. Instead, just the opposite in this case. You started it with a very reasonable observation. Now, I do think it’s a good deal simply because he’d get as much through arbitration and it’s unlikely the Cards would cut him even with a bad 2023. It simply removes the headache of negotiating two separate deals. That said, the pitch clock question and how it will impact pitchers is an important one.
Pitch clock will help him. His stuff plays, but he does need to speed it up.
That’s going to be interesting to watch. The assumption is that pitchers who take a long time between pitches, and use the time to recover so they can throw harder, will be the losers. There will certainly be some of that, but there may be a class of relievers who actually benefit and their command improves by throwing the ball more quickly. It’ll be interesting to watch. It will also be interesting to see how teams this off season make moves (and perhaps guesses) on which relievers will handle the changes more effectively.
Guessing is fun: $8.5 million guarantee.
You’re probably spot on. Which would be a great deal.
His best days are over…
Being a cardinals fan on the internet is painful. We deserve all of the backlash that comes our way as a collective.
7.5 million
Did you get my pizza the way I like it?
7.5
11M
Sorry, AP reported before you posted. You’re guess is disqualified.
Gallegos will be in his age 32 season, his Arb 3 season that Cards bought out.
Free agency at age 33 in 2025. First appeared in 2012 with Yanks in rookie Gulf Coast league.
He has been waiting for a payday a long time. I am mixed of fair service time calculating for free agency.
The Yankees could’ve used him this year with the way their bullpen is going.
Yes, but the year of the trade Yankee fans were on this board yukking it up about how they stole the legendary Luke Voit for a so-so relief pitcher.
(They are consistent.)
The Yankees could have used Giovanni Ribisi with the way their ‘pen has gone this year…
Y’all I’m a cards fan but this guy is not as good as y’all think. This is literally the same guy that got one out, walked 3 (including the game winning run) to the pirates. He just isn’t consistent. My cardinals’ only weakness is the pen, and he showed that tonight
So one game determines his value?
In his second outing in 2005, the year he came in second in the Cy vote, Mariano Rivera got only two outs, struck out one, walked three, gave up three hits and five runs, one earned, and was replaced by Felix Rodriguez, who got the final out in a 7-3 Yankee loss.
Maybe Mo wasn’t as good as the Cy voters thought. Or maybe one bad outing doesn’t mean a whole lot over the course of a season.
Don’t try to reason with Cardinals fans on the internet. it is the most frustrating thing in the world to be a Cardinals fan and have to read drivel like this from most of the rest of them. It is almost like these guys are watching a different game than I am.
Has it not occurred to you that there are millions of Cardinals fans, and it’s therefore exceedingly presumptuous to claim to know how most of them think based on your acquaintance with a random sampling of online comments?
Unless you have an astonishingly large pool of personal acquaintances who root for the Cardinals, the odds that your impressions of the fan base accurately reflect their actual level of knowledge are likely quite small. This year, the Cardinals rank second in baseball in both total and average attendance. I’d be amazed if you knew the majority of the 40,994 fans who’ve attended games at Busch Stadium on average this year.
But I’m certainly willing to be amazed if it’s warranted. Do you really know that many Cardinals fans personally?
I’ve been on this website since it’s inception so I have a much better idea than most. Not all Cardinals fans are complete dolts but a lot of the more vocal ones certainly are.
But hey maybe most baseball fans in general have their brains bolted on backwards and I just happen to notice all of the ones with cardinals related names and profile pictures.
I’m willing to bet that the total number of Cardinals fans posting on this site represents a tiny fraction of the team’s fan base, and the number who post ignorantly an even tinier fraction. Maybe the greater problem is a supercilious attitude towards other fans that leads you to denigrate them, with or without cause. And if you find the comments here so offensive, maybe you’d be happier not reading them. Something to think about perhaps.
The total number of Cardinals fans posting on this site obviously represents a tiny fraction of the fan base which is why I plainly stated “Don’t try to reason with Cardinals fans on the internet”. My experience of communicating with Cardinals fans on the internet is this website and YouTube, both of which are riddled with ignorant commenters. And of course I realize it is just a vocal minority. Not ALL Cardinals fans on here are dumb I’m certain of that, but a lot of those who make comments sure seem that way. You’ll also notice I never said I was offended by their ignorance. Everyone is free to their own opinions, ignorant or not.
My experience with Cardinals fans in the real world where it matters is generally great. People tend to be less upset about things like a great reliever signing a deal they deserved. People tend not to say weird things like “this guy can’t pitch because he walked 3 guys in a row once” in the real world. I’m sure I could even talk to many of these same dingbats at Busch stadium and not even know how idiotic their thought process was. The alcohol certainly helps in that situation of course. I’m a lot more open to dumb statements when I’m buzzed.
You’re assuming quite a bit when you say I have a “supercilious” attitude and I’m “denigrating them”. Why can’t I read a stupid comment from someone and counter it? Isn’t that what you’re doing right now? I don’t think I’m better than any other bozo on this website and I’m certainly not being unfair when I say a lot of the comments in this particular post are being unreasonable. Maybe you’d be happier if you didn’t put on a facade on the internet and just be yourself. I don’t know you but I find it hard to believe you act this way normally. Something to think about.
I’ll reply by quoting your comment posted above:
“The cardinals sign one of the best relievers in baseball to an extension and cardinals fans everywhere go nuts. We might watch the most baseball out of any other fans but we’re still collectively a bunch of numbskulls when it comes to understanding the game.”
That comment seemed a broad-brush swipe at Cardinals fans in general with none of the qualifiers you refer to in this latest post.
And when, as above, you refer to other fans with terms like “absolute morons,” “numbskulls” and “thick bozo,” I think I can be forgiven for thinking that you’re denigrating them.
I’m glad your experience with Cardinals fans in the real world is generally great. My impression of that fan base is generally very good as well.
Maybe when you take into account the fact that I also call myself a bozo, dingus, moron, etc you’ll understand that I don’t think I’m any better than these absolute clown people. I literally call myself a numbskull in what you quoted.
These are the terms reported by the AP:
“Gallegos gets a $500,000 signing bonus and salaries of $4.5 million next year and $5.5 million in 2024. St. Louis has a $6.5 million team option for 2025 with a $500,000 buyout.
“His 2025 option price can increase by up to $3.5 million for games finished in 2024: $500,000 each for 20-25 and 26-30 and 31-35, and $1 million apiece for 36-40 and 41 or more.
“He would get $250,000 for winning the Rivera/Hoffman reliever of the year award, $50,000 for All-Star selection and World Series MVP and $25,000 for League Championship Series MVP.”
Those are good terms for a reliever of his quality. He doesn’t need to be the best reliever in baseball for that to be a good deal for the team; he just has to stay at around the same level of effectiveness.
The concerns about the pitch clock are reasonable, as are the suggestions that the Cardinals could’ve waited to see how that plays out. But it’s also possible that being forced to pitch faster could make him more effective, not less so.
Agreed. Solid reliever on what seems like a fair deal.
Some of these comments are incredible. There are actually people who think this signing was a bad idea and the funniest thing is they all seem to be Cardinals fans. Some of these guys have even gone as far as to say he’s inconsistent when you’d be hard pressed to find a more consistent reliever in all of baseball over the past 4 years. Him being consistently great year after year is his strongest attribute. He has a 2.83 FIP 0.893 WHIP 11.1 K/9 over the past 4 years and you numbskulls have the audacity to say he wasn’t worth 11 million over 2 years? This guy would get 11 million a year on the open market if not more. What in the world is wrong with signing a guy to a short extension that he absolutely deserved? Because one dingus says “WeLl I dOnT kNoW hOw WeLl hE wIlL rEsPoNd To A pItCh ClOcK” and the rest of you group-think bozos decide that it’s actually a real concern? Amazing. Like he’s somehow incapable of delivering his pitch 5 seconds faster than he’s used to. Is Ryan Helsley going to be terrible too because he also takes longer than 15 seconds to deliver his pitches? Loasisiga, Finnegan, Jansen, etc aren’t suddenly going to be dogshit relievers because they have to up their tempo. They have a much higher mental fortitude than you fake fans/armchair GM’s do. I just don’t understand for a second why you guys think he should be forced to go year to year through arbitration just because you think you know more than those who are actually paid to make decisions.
A few of you clowns even said he’s not a good pitcher because he walked 3 guys in a completely meaningless game yesterday and are pretending like this is some sort of common occurrence. Look at his walk rate and tell me with a straight face that this guy does that often.
Other teams fans would look at this deal and be ecstatic for the player but you guys just can’t help yourselves but to be bitter about it and it’s sad. As an actual fan of the team and the players on it it makes me cringe.
I was just saying that he just can’t give you the same reliability as Helsley could in late games. He is a good pitcher. I saw him close out the yanks at Busch with 2 strikeouts. Problem is, helsley does that pretty much every game, as opposed to Gallegos every like 4 appearances. Last year Gio was our best RP. He could absolutely pitch like that again. This year just hasn’t been as great Do it again Gio!! Prove us wrong
@BrettPhillips for Prezident
My intention was not to single out your comment. Others have said something similar about the 3 walk night.
With that said, Helsley has been lights out this year and terrible for the prior 3 years. Gallegos has been lights out for the past 4 years. Gallegos has a lower FIP, higher strike out rate, lower walk rate than Helsey over the past 4 years to go along with giving up fewer hits on a rate basis than any other pitcher in baseball over the same span.
Relief pitchers are notoriously unpredictable from season to season, and yet Gallegos has remained possibly the most consistently great reliever in the game.
And I certainly hope Helsley continues at the same dominant rate for the foreseeable future of course but it is unreasonable to think he will. 3.9 hits per 9 is almost impossible to maintain for an extended period and it’s incredible he has done it for this long.
To be more clear I love Ryan Helsley and he’s the guy I want in the highest leverage situation in the upcoming post season based just on his results this season. But he hasn’t been this guy long enough to say he’s more reliable than Gallegos IMO.
Now that he got paid, he can keep walking in the winning run for years to come.
Yeah because he does that all the time, right?
Since he signed his extension, sure has.
I’m sure he’ll be traded in the offseason because of it. Don’t worry.
That’s not the cardinal way. They have to hang on to players until all value is lost. See Paul DeJong, Tyler O’Neil, Alex Reyes, Carlos Martinez, Dylan Carlson, and soon to be Nolan Gorman
“The Cardinal Way” is meaningless trope that I think a lot of people are tired of hearing about. And I think if they could see the future and knew these guys would drop off in their ability so sharply they would have certainly traded them (with the exception of Carlson, Gorman and O’Neil of course who still have tons of value).
Of course for every Martinez or Reyes you can point to examples where they did trade guys before they fell apart like Allen Craig or Colby Rasmus.
Slider, your prediction skills aren’t so hot. You know Pujols hit #703 last night? So if you dismiss his 2 against the Dodgers as them throwing meatballs, he still eclipsed 700. Or has it been collusion for 20 years?
The key to a good cover up is commitment and distraction. MLB knew that media outlets would become rightfully suspicious if he magically stopped at 700. The clubhouse equipment guy hasn’t been seen since his corking, and the PED test was lost an hour after it was administered Their pockets and their connections run deep. Deeper than you or the public will ever know.
Cardinals won the Luke Voit trade
for a while there the voit trade looked like a steal for the yankees, but he’s long gone and they could sure use gallegos right now
Top 5 most underrated relief pitchers in the game today (2022)