Cardinals Hurler Floated As Surprise Non-Tender Candidate Despite Solid Season

The St. Louis Cardinals aren't going to look the same in 2024. 

This isn't a surprising notion. When you win just 71 games in a season, organizational changes must be made. The Cardinals will be doing just that this offseason. St. Louis needs to focus on improving the starting rotation and adding more depth throughout the roster entirely. 

This may end up forcing the club to open up roster spots by non-tendering players. Redbird Rants' Josh Jacobs compiled a list of players who could get the axe this offseason and one player he mentioned was left-handed reliever John King., 

"John King, on the surface, pitched really well after coming over in the Jordan Montgomery-Chris Stratton deal at the trade deadline," Jacobs said. "Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby were the major pieces of that deal, but King was a nice throw-in for St. Louis to take a flyer on. A left-handed reliever who had struggled thus far in his career, King posted a 1.45 ERA in 18.2 innings for the Cardinals down the stretch.

"Looking under the hood though, King provides little upside and was outperforming his underlying numbers while in St. Louis. He had a 3.85 FIP after the deadline (which was actually higher than his FIP in Texas), and still only struck out 4.8 batters per nine innings. They can keep him around if they want to and I wouldn't mind it, but if they do plan on bringing in two high-leverage relievers, clearing up the space makes sense."

King was impressive for the Cardinals with a 1.45 ERA but it's unclear how long he'll stick around. He's under team control and easily could be back in 2024 but if the Cardinals need to open up a roster spot maybe they could let him go. He came over in the Jordan Montgomery trade and impressed and has a career 3.91 ERA. I