Cardinals Promote Promising Triple-A Reliever to Potentially Fortify Bullpen
Luis Gastelum, who zipped through the Cardinals' Minor League system and piled up huge strikeout numbers with a devastating changeup, was promoted from Triple-A Memphis for what will be his MLB debut. Gastelum didn't allow a run over his final 18 Triple-A outings.
Video Transcript
The Cardinals pitching staff, primarily the bullpen, in need of swing and miss all season long, is finally gonna get a look at Luis Castellum, one of the highest, fastest rising prospects in the Cardinals minor league system over the last four years.
Castellum is a changeup specialist.
He has racked up huge strikeout numbers at just about every level that he's pitched in, in the minor leagues.
Now, we're gonna finally find out if it translates to the big leagues.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
Cardinals called up Luis Castellum on Wednesday.
personally, I wish, would've liked to seen him a day earlier after the, the, m- you know, the craziness that we saw on Tuesday.
Bruce Zimmerman pitched five innings.
He pitched okay, gave up three runs, but the Cardinals des- designated him for assignment right after the game on Tuesday.
Then in the late game, they brought in Jared Schuster, a guy that they had already designated for assignment twice.
Schuster gives up seven runs in the seventh inning, turned out to be a 10 to two loss.
Schu- of course, Schuster today was DFA'd for the third time this season by the Cardinals.
Finally, enter Luis Castellum.
Here's, here's a look at his numbers so far.
He's 24 years old.
He is seven and one this season, with a 227 ERA, three saves.
In 43 and two-thirds innings, he has struck out 49 batters.
He's got a 28% strikeout rate, and he's held opposing hitters to a 172 batting average.
if that's not enough to get you excited, how about this?
Over his last 18 outings, he did not give up an earned run.
He hasn't given up an earned run since May 17th.
Over that time, he's 4 and 0 with a save, and he has 30 strikeouts in 22 innings.
So a 22-inning scoreless streak finally gets Castellum to the big leagues.
you know, I'm, I'm curious to see, from the all appearances, he's like one of those Devin Williams types.
When, when he has the changeup working, it's almost unhittable.
Hitters know it's coming and still can't hit it because there's so much movement on it.
it's comes at a different pace.
So I'm curious to see if it'll translate to the big leagues.
Now, he only has a 93 mile an hour fastball, which is, you know, very low this day and age.
he has to stay away from throwing the fastball.
He uses it as a change of pace, to keep hitters honest.
But if he's throwing the changeup for strikes, if he's getting change with that, there, there should be no reason why his, his stuff won't translate to the big leagues.
The, you know, the Cardinals need this.
They, they need more bridge relief to get the ball to, to JoJo Romero and, and to Riley O'Brien at the back end.
I- if he can help, George Soriano, if he can help the, Ryan Stanek, who's, you know, had a, had a rough season, overall, if he can help them get the ball to the back end of the bullpen, this could be a big move for the Cardinals.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
