Assuming the St. Louis Cardinals choose to hang on to Ryan Helsley as the MLB trade deadline comes and goes, the Red Birds could be on the verge of adding another elite reliever to their bullpen by the time July 31 rolls around.
The man in the lead currently? Baltimore Orioles reliever Gregory Soto.
Soto was named to the 2021 and 2022 MLB All-Star Games as a member of the Detroit Tigers before joining the Philadelphia Phillies and then to Baltimore last year.
And with Baltimore essentially signing Soto on last year to help with their own playoff push after closer Felix Bautista dealt with Tommy John surgery, there’s really no reason that the Cardinals couldn’t do the same thing in 2025, even with a fully healthy Ryan Helsley leading the St. Louis bullpen.
As the standings read as of July 3, the Cardinals sit at 47-40, 5.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central ranks and putting them in a tie with the San Diego Padres for the final NL Wild Card spot.
Soto’s arsenal mainly consists of two pitches, a hard sinker that ranges from 94-99 miles per hour, and has even topped out at 101, and the other a heavily breaking slider that is typically thrown from 86-93 miles per hour, occasionally mixing in a four-seam fastball that reaches the same velocity as his sinker.
His repertoire is somewhat similar to that of the reigning NL Reliever of the Year Helsley, who also throws a high-90s fastball while also tossing a changeup, a cutter, and a curveball, all equally as devastating to a hitter’s game plan.
Since his debut with the Tigers in 2019, the Dominican southpaw has registered 55 saves and 376 strikeouts, and if the Cards do pull the trigger and go for Soto at the deadline, it could give them one of the biggest 1-2 bullpen punches in the entire major leagues.
