If there is one weakness with the 2026 St. Louis Cardinals, it’s the bullpen.
St. Louis currently has the 20th-ranked bullpen ERA in baseball at 4.43. It hasn’t stopped the Cardinals in the standings. Right now, the Cardinals are tied for second place in the National League Central with the Chicago Cubs with a 28-19 record. The young Cardinals are firing on all cylinders and have been the most fun team for the franchise since at least 2022.
With the Cardinals trading a handful of veterans away ahead of the season, it’s hard to believe that the club will now go out and spend heavily this season or swing some sort of blockbuster deal involving cutting ties with prospects. It’s just not the strategy the club should take. But the Cardinals are playing so well that they shouldn’t be broken up as well. If the Cardinals keep playing like this, the front office should be looking for cheap ways to improve around the edges without tearing things down.
The easiest way would be to improve the bullpen with a cheap arm. It just so happens that an old friend just became available who could do just that. On Wednesday, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that Cardinals old friend Matt Bowman was granted his release by the Minnesota Twins after logging a 1.69 ERA in 14 appearances down in the minors at the Triple-A level.
The Cardinals Should Reunite With Matt Bowman
“Matt Bowman was given his release by Twins, likely due to 40-man issues. Bowman posted a 1.69 ERA with 25 strikeouts and 6 walks in 21.1 innings while inducing groundballs at a 54.5% rate with AAA St. Paul. MLB deal elsewhere probably awaits,” Heyman wrote.
Talk about a throwback, huh? Bowman spent the first three seasons of his big league career as a member of the Cardinals back from 2016 through the 2018 season. He pitched in 156 games — which is still his most with any individual big league team — and had a 4.10 ERA in 149 1/3 innings pitched.
Overall, he has pitched in 231 total big league games in seven seasons and has a 4.38 ERA. He last pitched in the majors with the Baltimore Orioles last season and had a 6.20 ERA in 20 outings. This season, he logged a 1.69 ERA with Triple-A St. Paul in the Twins’ farm system before his release in 14 outings. He’s a veteran righty with Cardinals experience already under his belt. He’s the exact type of hurler Chaim Bloom and Co. should be taking a chance on at this point to give the bullpen more arms.
