Every year, or at least every year since 2012, we’ve taken some time after the season was over to look at the past 162 games through the lens of the players that played them (and the management that was in charge of them). Last year, the Exit Interview series spent less time digging into splits and finding numerical oddities and more time reflecting on the player and their season. It was a style that seemed to work so we’re going to bring it back again this year. The legendary cardinalsgifs is back to bring us excellent series art, so it’s all downhill after you see that!
Player: Zack Thompson
Stats: 0-2, 5 G, 17.0 IP, 24 H, 6 HR, 8 BB, 20 K, 9.53 ERA, 6.99 FIP, 1.882 WHIP, -0.6 bWAR
Statcast: 13.0% barrel, 33.3% sweet spot, 115.2 max exit velocity, .432 wOBA, .340 xwOBA, 24.1 K%, 9.6 BB%
Grade: D
Did the Cardinals break Zack Thompson? It’s an interesting possibility to ponder. He had a remarkably good 2022 coming out of the bullpen and while there was no reason to think that he should stay there permanently, that’s where the club started him in 2023 before sending him to Memphis mid-season to become a starter. The conversion didn’t look to be effective, though he did have a run at the end of the season that gave optimism he was turning things around and put himself in the conversation for the 2024 rotation. He made the club out of spring training but you can see what happened. He had two starts and three relief appearances before he was sent to Memphis, never to return.
As befitting what has become a career of pendulum swings, his time in Memphis was actually pretty solid. He had three games around the August/September turn that were ugly (14 earned in 13.2 innings) but other than that he had a 3.54 ERA and he struck out 108 over 90 innings. Yet there never seemed to be any talk about bringing him back up and seeing if he could carry that success forward in the majors. Perhaps they didn’t want to risk any backsliding if he came up and went into the bullpen. Maybe they had no idea how he was doing since it seems the communication between minors and majors was lacking, to say the least. Whatever the case, his Memphis season ended with 11 scoreless innings, a nice ending to a weird season.
What’s in store for 2025: Thompson has no options left, so he’ll need to stick in the big leagues next year one way or another. Interestingly, his name doesn’t come up very often when the starting pitching depth is discussed, at least it doesn’t seem so to me. We know how Michael McGreevy made an impression last year but could you see Thompson in the rotation ahead of him or alongside him? If some of the older veterans are moved, Thompson would seem to be in the mix, maybe depending on how spring training goes, for a rotation spot. He also might be part of some package this winter to a place that needs some young but MLB experienced arms. The Cards have to figure out something to do with him and hopefully it’ll be in St. Louis.
