The Cardinals appear to have sorted out the left side of their bullpen on Saturday, as the team announced that southpaw Sam Freeman was traded to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later or cash.
#stlcards trade LHP Sam Freeman to Texas Rangers for player to be named later or cash considerations
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) March 28, 2015
Freeman, 27, is out of options and would have had to pass through waivers unclaimed if he didn’t make the big league club. The Cardinals already had lefties Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist expected to be on the major league roster, although Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted Saturday that the club wanted to keep Freeman around in the case that Siegrist, who was rehabbing from a torn muscle in his throwing hand, was not ready to contribute in the big leagues. Goold also noted that there have been plenty of teams, including the New York Mets, who’ve been in the market for lefty relievers over the past month.
As Spring Training continued throughout the month and Siegrist continued to prove his health, the club realized that they would need to trade Freeman or risk losing him for no return, as he didn’t appear to have a spot in St. Louis.
GM John Mozeliak discussed the move with Goold:
“It really became a roster issue and clearly we were going to try and take this down to the wire as best we could, but we also didn’t want to find ourselves where ultimately we couldn’t do something with Sam before it was simply just a waiver claim. (Taking Freeman north) is something that I just think wasn’t going to happen. Siegrist is throwing the ball well. When you look at the depth right now from the left side — Marco Gonzales could pitch out of the ‘pen if you needed him to and a lot of people have confidence in using a (Tim) Cooney if necessary.”
Freeman had a 2.61 ERA in 44 games last season, and has a career 3.33 ERA over 70 1/3 big league innings. Freeman grew up nearby in Carrollton, Texas.
