Cardinals Rumors: Nolan Arenado’s future, top prospect buzz, surprising DFA

Cardinals Rumors: St. Louis DFA’s Genesis Cabrera

It’s been a tough season for Genesis Cabrera, who has an ERA of 5.06 in 32 appearances for the Cardinals this season. That’s a far cry from his 2020-21 self, when Cabrera had a 3.41 ERA in 92.1 innings over the course of two seasons.

Per Katie Woo of The Athletic, “The Cardinals are designating left-handed reliever Génesis Cabrera for assignment. Cabrera has been with the team since 2019. A surprising move given his presumed trade interest, though he can still be traded within 7 days of being DFA’d.”

In short, the Cards will have a week to trade Cabrera should they wish. However, they parted with much of their leverage when they opted to designate him for assignment, as Cabrera will be available to every team after a week’s time. Frankly, St. Louis would be lucky to receive any prospect capital in return for the right-hander, which likely means his market wasn’t too active to begin with.

As MLB Trade Rumors points out, there’s still reason to believe a turnaround is possible for Cabrera in a new location.

"“Even with the downturn in velocity and pedestrian strikeout rate over the past two seasons, there’s still some reason to believe Cabrera is capable of more. Averaging roughly 96 mph from the left side is of note, even if that’s down from peak levels, and Cabrera sports a very strong 13.6% swinging-strike rate this season. He’s also induced chases off the plate at an above-average 32.6% clip. There’s little doubt that Cabrera has intriguing raw stuff, and another team may have a different plan to maximize his arsenal.”"

Cabrera is relatively affordable and a good buy-low candidate for any team in need of relief help.