Genesis Cabrera Designated For Assignment
Edit: Genesis Cabrera was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for catcher Sammy Hernandez
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The 26-year-old from the Dominican Republic was designated for assignment today by the St. Louis Cardinals. The hard-throwing lefty made his Major League debut on May 29th, 2019 as a starter versus the Philadelphia Phillies, going only 3.2 innings allowing five runs, three earned, striking out five to two walks. He made one additional start on June 4th versus the Cincinnati Reds, going 4 and 2/3 innings being charged with four runs to which three were earned, no strikeouts and two walks. He was moved to the bullpen, pitching in three games, giving up two runs and striking out five before being demoted.
He was brought back up in September and got a three-inning save in a 10-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants. He ended the season with a 4.87 ERA.
Cabrera was left on the shortlist to be brought up during the Covid Shortened 2020. He came up in game seven on the season, pitching an inning, and giving up two runs with two strikeouts. He remained with the ball club for the rest of the season, attuning a 2.42 ERA.
Cabrera cracked the opening day roster in 2021, pitching in 71 games, going 0-5 with a 3.73 ERA. Something to keep of note is that even though Cabrera was a hard thrower, he often had command issues trying to locate his pitches. This in turn led to a career high 36 walks to 77 strikeouts.
The following year was another decent year until August when his ERA ballooned from 2.87 to 4.63 due to three bad outings. He was placed on the injured list and didn’t return that season. One of the highlights was Cabrera going four innings out of the bullpen against the Cubs pitching from the eighth to the 11th only allowing one run to five strikeouts.
While not starting the 2023 campaign on the Opening Day squad, he had a great 2.51 ERA going to May 8th, and generally kept the opposition off the scoreboard. Then came a stretch where he gave up a run every other game, pushing his ERA above five. After three rough outings in June, he settled down giving up no runs between June 16th and July 9th. However, trust seemed to be lost on him as he was rarely used in July, going between three to five days of rest. Finally, the front office was done playing, and DFA’d him. Cabrera has the potential to be a great reliever if he can ever get his command to work to his advantage. Hopefully someone can pick up this reliever, and see the dominance that was once shown in his arm.
