I’m going to write about Ryan Helsley today, but before I get into it I want to have some fun, because I enjoy the St. Louis baseball tradition of fans and media pleading with the front office to bring back former Cardinals who were traded, or released, or allowed to walk away as a free agent. This retroactive popularity is a frequent occurrence and fantastically amusing.
For a while now, at least some former Cardinals have been more popular than guys who are actually playing for the Cardinals.
This list would include Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, Luke Voit, Tommy Pham, Luke Weaver, Lane Thomas, Patrick Wisdom and Michael Wacha.
I could cite others but you get the point. Usually the ex-Card becomes instantly popular with Cardinal fans as soon as he makes a splash with his new team. At that point he becomes an object of obsession.
Why? Mostly because the player’s success elsewhere offered an easy chance to rip president of baseball operations John Mozeliak for his failure to keep the guy.
OK, what about Ryan Helsley!
Get on with this, Miklasz!
I will. The Athletic reports that the Detroit Tigers and “other teams” are interested in signing Helsley, a reliever in a free-agent market that is overloaded with relievers.
However … The Tigers are interested in Helsley as a possible starting pitcher. Huh. This got my attention because the Tigers have an intelligent baseball operation.
This also put me in a mood to explore.
— Is this a crazy idea? No. I’ll explain why later in this document.
— Should the Cardinals view Helsley as a starting-pitcher candidate and sign him to a new contract? Don't know. But I'm skeptical.
Up front, this possibility depends on a few things:
(A) The size of the commitment. In salaries and length of contract. If there’s surprisingly aggressive bidding on Helsley’s services, would the rebuilding Cardinals grimace and withdraw? The best I can do here is say “probably.” But I’m not Chaim Bloom. But in an interview with Katy Woo of The Athletic, Helsley said his agent has heard from a lot of teams, and there is widespread interest in signing him as a reliever. That signing price will likely escalate.
(B) Would Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and staff be confident in the mission to repurpose Helsley as a starter? Would signing Helsley back to The Lou lead to success for the pitcher and his former team – or is this just a curiosity that might result in a boost to fan relations but has a minor chance of working? And what if the new regime still views Helsley as a reliever? How much would the Cardinals spend to put Helsley back into his old job here?
(C) Would the popular former St. Louis closer prefer to return to St. Louis even if he’s offered less money than what other teams are willing to invest in him? Oh, and how does Helsley feel about being a starter? That was his job during most of the time in his prospect days in the STL farm system. And he was actually very good at it. I’ll offer the stats later. That said, in talking with Woo, Helsley indicated that he'd prefer to remain in the closer role, because he likes it. And he is comfortable doing it. Becoming a starter for the first time since 2018 in the minors would be a significant and perhaps stressful process. Helsley is confident that he's solved the big problem of tipping his four-seam fastball, a flaw that led to a performance downturn in 2025. If that's the case it's a major development that would work in his favor on the open market.
(D) Let's zoom in on the starter or reliever question. This is what Helsley told Woo: "I know what I’m capable of as a reliever. I think I still have a lot to give and can get even better. I’ve shown what I can do as a closer when I’m in that role. It’s a really fun time to be in the game. It’s the most important three outs of the game, but I still think I’m capable and able to be a starter. I missed starting probably the first half of my career, but once I really started closing, I didn’t think about it as much. Learning a new pitch would be something I could pick up, obviously, but it’d be a learning curve throughout this first year to figure out how to be a major-league starting pitcher.”
Helsley loved it here in St. Louis and was disappointed (but understanding) when the Cards traded him to the Mets at last season’s trade deadline. He expressed enthusiasm over the possibility of a reunion with the franchise that drafted and developed him. And Helsley is a sincere man. But then again, we’ve seen this before. I’d be surprised if Helsley turned down a financially rewarding deals to settle for short money from the Cardinals. Free agency is his chance -- in theory -- to maximize his earning power.
And while it certainly seems that Helsley is happy in the bullpen habitat, I'll play along. I can think of several reasons why there is merit to the idea of switching to a starter role. I’ll mix in some historical perspective.
1. This isn’t a radical idea. Teams have already converted more than a few relievers into starters in recent times. Notable examples: Reynaldo Lopez, Garrett Crochet, Clay Holmes, Christopher Sanchez. Jordan Hicks, Seth Lugo and Zack Littell. But we have to be a little careful here. Teams will ease a talented pitcher into the majors to get him settled, and acclimated – then place him in the rotation. The Cardinals did that with Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn and Carlos Martinez. Ditto for the Phillies and Sanchez. Ronel Blanco (Astros) followed that plan. The results have been mixed, but among true relievers who made the switch, Lopez and Crochet made superb transitions from the bullpen to the rotation.
2. This isn’t some new thing concocted by all of the fancy-pants analytics people that old-school fans despise. I found a long-ago story about this on ESPN’s site and here’s a partial list of relievers who were relocated to the rotation: Kenny Rogers, David Wells, Derek Lowe, Jimmy Key, Danny Darwin, Dave Stewart, Chris Sale, Charlie Hough, Johan Santana, Wilbur Wood, Omar Daal and Hoyt Wilhelm. In his two seasons with the Dodgers, the young Pedro Martinez made three starts and 65 relief appearances. He didn’t get the chance to become a full-time starter (and a great one) until the Dodgers traded him to Montreal before the 1994 season.
Cardinals fans of a certain age will remember Dick Hughes in 1967. He pitched a lot in relief in the minors – but also made plenty of starts. (Doing both? Imagine that!) Hughes pitched out of the bullpen early in ‘67 but entered the rotation after Bob Gibson suffered a broken leg when hit by a line drive. Hughes came up large for the eventual World Series champion Cardinals: going 16-6 with a 2.67 ERA that season. Hughes started 27 games and pitched in relief 10 times in ‘67.
3. There is at least some chance of Helsley getting lost in the surplus of available free-agent relievers. And after he was battered for a 7.20 ERA in 20 innings after being acquired by the Mets, perhaps some interested parties would be wary of making a considerable investment in him. And how can a team be sure he's fully repaired the pitch-tipping weakness? As of now there are 32 right-handed relievers on the free agent market – plus around 25 lefty relievers as well. But Helsley throws harder than all but a few MLB relievers. He has a killer slider. If the pitch-tipping crisis is in the past, Helsley can return to form as a high-end reliever.
Helsley would be “competing” for the more lucrative contracts against a crowd of righty relievers that includes Edwin Diaz, Robert Suarez, Devin Williams, Brad Keller, Pete Fairbanks, Kenley Jansen, Tyler Rogers, Shawn Armstrong, Tyler Alexander, Kyle Finnegan and Emilio Pagan. Last season Helsley's 0.2 fWAR was tied for 25th among right-handed relievers. Then again, The Athletic placed Helsley at No. 27 overall on its big board of top free agents.
A positive move to the rotation could lead to a lot more money for Helsley down the line -- if he's interested. But it appears that his heart is still attached to the closer gig. Unless, of course, he receives a superb offer to become a starter from the Tigers or other clubs. But if there's anxiety out there over Helsley's performance in 2025, Helsley would likely command a larger salary for 2026 as if he accepts a rotation role. Last season Helsley's 0.2 fWAR was the worst of his career in a full major-league season.
As Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake told The Athletic earlier this year: “As the walls have been broken down between starter and reliever, and the arsenal adaptability continues to grow, guys who are interested in growing as a pitcher are interested in the salary that comes as a starter. There’s incentive to go that route, if they can handle it physically.”
4. Helsley was an impressive starting pitcher for the Cardinals as a minor league prospect.
I did the math on this, and I’m happy to share it with you. In five minor-league seasons (2015-2019) Helsley was a starting pitcher most of the way until he reached Triple A Memphis in 2019. At that point, the Cardinals moved Helsley to the bullpen because they had a need in the major-league bullpen. So Helsley made only two starts for Memphis that season.
I know that minor-league stats can be deceptive and we should interpret them with restraint. But for what it’s worth, here is Helsley’s performance as a developing starter in the STL system:
* 69 starts, 350 and ⅓ innings.
* Individual win-loss record of 27-10.
* ERA of 2.74
* An average of 6.3 hits per 9 innings.
* A yield of 0.48 homers per 9 IP.
* Strikeout rate of 26.3 percent.
* Walk rate of 8.5 percent.
* Strikeout-walk ratio of 3.1.
* A WHIP of 1.044.
Though the walk rate was on the high side, that’s a really positive set of numbers. To be honest, the numbers are much better than I expected to find.
5. Should the career reset as a starter fail to click, it’s OK. That’s because Helsley could always go back to a bullpen gig. The Cardinals are in need of starting-pitching depth at the big-league level. Obviously Helsley wouldn’t be a sure thing – but again, he has experience as a starter and displayed promising form over 350 and ⅓ innings in the role. In that context, because of his background, the risk isn’t as extreme.
On the downside, Helsley would have to develop a more comprehensive variety of pitches. Last season his wicked slider rated among the top seven percent of MLB pitchers. But his wayward fastball – the one that hitters knew was coming – was rated among the bottom two percent of pitchers. Last season opponents destroyed the Helsely fastball for a .422 average and .667 slugging percentage. His strikeout rate on the heater was a poor 14.8 percent. But again, Helsley is confident that his troubles with tipping are over.
The idea of recasting Helsley as a starting pitcher would take him back to his pitching roots – and to something that he did well.
But the closer mentality fits him. And if that's what he wants, then there won't be much to talk about.
The starter idea would soon be forgotten unless Helsley reevaluates as the free-agent offers come in.
This "Meet Me In St. Louis" reunion of the Cardinals and their former closer is fun to talk about, but as of now it's fantasy baseball. We'll see if that changes.
Thanks for reading …
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie covered every Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.