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The Cardinals introduced Tuesday that right-handed reliever Josh James has been given his unconditional launch. The previous Astros reliever had been pitching with their Triple-A affiliate in Memphis after signing a minor league deal within the offseason.
James hasn’t pitched within the massive leagues since 2021. The 31-year-old spent the nearly all of the 2022 season on the injured record earlier than ultimately present process flexor surgical procedure that price him the entire 2023 marketing campaign. He made for an intriguing minor league flier, given some prior success in Houston, however James displayed calamitous command points throughout his transient time with the Redbirds. In 7 2/3 innings this season, he’s been shelled for 17 earned runs (19.96 ERA) on 13 hits and 15 walks with solely 5 strikeouts. James confronted 51 hitters and walked 15 of them (29.4%).
Earlier than encountering his forearm damage, James spent 4 seasons within the Houston bullpen as a hard-throwing center reliever with lofty strikeout and stroll totals. In 106 1/3 innings on the MLB degree, James has fanned 34.3% of his opponents but in addition issued walks at a 13.2% clip — all en path to a 4.64 earned run common.
It’s doable he’ll get one other look elsewhere, however a near-30% stroll price in Triple-A on the heels of such a prolonged damage layoff underscores that James is a undertaking at this level. He’s fairly a methods faraway from the spectacular 2.35 ERA, 32% strikeout price and seven.7% stroll price he turned in as a rookie with the 2018 Astros.
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