With closer Edward Mujica pitching through shoulder problems the Cardinals decided to add some veteran bullpen depth, acquiring former closer John Axford from the Brewers for a player to be named later.
Axford pitched his way out of ninth-inning duties in Milwaukee after saving a league-high 46 games in 2011 and 35 games last season, and had an ugly two-homer appearance over the weekend.
However, since carrying a 9.00 ERA into mid-May he’s thrown 40 innings with a 2.70 ERA and 37/17 K/BB ratio while holding opponents to a .364 slugging percentage. That’s not quite the peak Axford from his 2011 success, but it’s certainly good enough to help the Cardinals in a setup role and he’s averaged 95.2 miles per hour with his fastball this year.
Axford is also under team control through 2016, although with a $5 million salary for this season and more arbitration-fueled raises ahead the Cardinals might deem him too expensive to keep.
