There comes a time when every team has to make a change, no matter how difficulty it might be. For St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, that decision was finally made on Saturday when he removed the closer's role from Trevor Rosenthal. After Matheny saw his closer allow three runs and blow the save on Friday, Matheny had seen enough and pulled the plug.
Rosenthal has shown he can throw some of the best stuff in baseball, but the rope grew thin after he allowed 11 earned runs in seven innings across June, and allowed a run in three of his last five appearances. While ERA's are far less reliable for relief pitchers because they can fluctuate after one bad outing, Rosenthal's 2.04 WHIP this season and eight walks allowed in June showed something was wrong. With a 14.14 ERA over his last 10 outings, the change was made.
Now with Rosenthal backed out of the role, the Cardinals will likely turn to a closer-by-committee group with different relievers pitching in different crucial situations. Seung Hwan Oh, who holds a 0.76 ERA, 51/8 K/BB ratio and 14 holds across 31 innings should see the favorable end of save situations, but other opportunities will be given to Jonathan Broxton and Kevin Siegrist.
On a Cardinals team that is 38-34, closer-by-committee is not the ideal scenario for fantasy owners in search of saves, but the best reliever to target would be Oh. The Cardinals are just an average team right now, so save opportunities won't be piling up on a nightly basis.