For the sixth straight year, we’re taking a look back at everyone that played for the St. Louis Cardinals this season. Whether they were a major contributor or a bit player, here all year or for just a little while, we’ll look at their season and talk about what went right and what went wrong. The stat line listed is just their time in St. Louis, though splits and other numbers in the discussion may be for the entire year. Imagine this as them stopping by Mike Matheny‘s office for a little review on their way home for the winter. As always when you see incredible artistry in the blogs, all credit for the header work goes to @cardinalsgifs.
Player: Mike Mayers
Season stats: 0-0, 11.57 ERA, 3 games, 4.2 IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 3 K, 2.571 WHIP, 10.02 FIP, -0.2 bWAR
Hero/Goat: Goat 1
Overall grade: D
Positives: Well, his ERA was lower than last year’s mark….his FIP was a run and a half lower, so there was some bad luck in there, if you squint….had one appearance per month from June to August, which is kinda quirky….threw more innings than anyone else in Memphis….had a solid 3.28 ERA with 97 strikeouts in 109.2 innings for the Redbirds….pitched well for AAA down the stretch as well, with a 2.37 ERA in August….had a 2.12 ERA after the AAA All-Star Game….that coincided to when he moved out of the rotation and into the bullpen.
Negatives: The major league line pretty much tells the story….gave up five runs in 2/3rds of an inning against Pittsburgh, which did skew things….gave up at least one run in each outing….six of the eight hits he allowed went for extra bases….had a 4.11 ERA away from home for the Redbirds….started the season off rough, posting an 8.15 ERA in April….had a .576 ERA in day games for Memphis.
Overview: Mike Mayers has thrown 10 innings over two seasons in his major league career. It’s a terribly small sample, but the devastation that has gone along with that is not so tiny. He’s been on the major league mound seven times since 2016 and only once did he leave the game and not get charged with a run. He’s faced 60 batters and given up five home runs, not to mention five doubles, 14 singles, and seven walks. His career line against is .490/.533/.898. Yes, basically one in every two at bats ends in the batter getting some sort of base hit. Even in a small sample, these are really amazingly bad numbers.
Outlook: Mayers is on the 40-man to start the winter but would seem to be the easiest person to take off of it when the time comes for needing space. There’s no doubt the club could get him back to pitch more in Memphis–I can’t imagine there are other teams beating his door down to employ him–but there seems little reason to believe he’s going to ever really make it in the big leagues. I know I said similar things about Jose Martinez and his 40-man issues and we discussed earlier today how wrong I was, but I’m willing to go out on the limb and say Mayers doesn’t have much of a future in St. Louis.
