Can Oh Make a Difference?

I'm sure most of you readers have heard that the St. Louis Cardinals have signed a Korean relief pitcher by the name of Seung-Hwan Oh to a one-year deal. Over 9 seasons of pitching for Korea and two years of pitching for Japan, Oh has put up a 1.81 career ERA to go along with 357 saves and 772 strikeouts over a career 646.1 IP. Those numbers are fairly impressive for a man who has pitched in Korean/Japanese baseball since he was 23. However, the MLB is a completely different ballgame than baseball being played on the other side of the Pacific. At age 33, I fear that Oh may have in fact reached his peak years. Couple that with the new players, slightly different play in the MLB, and a declining number of strikeouts in his 2015 season compared to his 2014 season, and you have a recipe for uncertainty as to how Oh will perform. However, he does fill a roll that the Cardinals need at the moment. After the 2015 early-season injury of Jordan Walden, the Cardinals picked around a bit before settling on Seth Maness and Carlos Villanueva, as well as a few other pitchers occasionally, to fill this roll of 8th inning setup man. Since the end of the season, Villanueva has chosen to sign with the Padres. This will force Maness into a short stint as a setup man in addition to his duties as general reliever until Walden makes his full return (probably the 2nd-3rd week of the season as a daily setup man). This opens up a great opportunity for Oh to get acquainted with the club and get a few opportunities to pitch both as a setup man and general reliever. In the end, the club will eventually make a decision as to where to use Oh in the game, but most likely he will end up as a backup setup man and 7th inning reliever (if Walden returns in full-force). In conclusion, there are some definite up-sides to having an experienced relief/setup pitcher like Oh in the club, especially with his career numbers. However, his lack of MLB experience and his younger baseball years being in the past may work against him. The question is: Will Oh make a positive, consistent impact on this club, or should the Cardinals have invested more time and money in getting some experienced MLB offense in the free-agent market? Oh says he wants to pitch in St. Louis... It's his job to prove to the club and the city that he can make a positive impact.

See you next week,
Jack Kavanaugh

We will be doing a Q&A with former Arkansas Razorback and now Los Angles Dodger, Mike Bolsinger on Monday, comment your questions below or let us know on Twitter or Facebook!