Ryan Helsley set the St. Louis Cardinals team record for saves in a single season on Friday with a scoreless ninth in a 6-3 win over the San Francisco Giants. Helsley has been perhaps the brightest spot for the 2024 Cardinals. The organization should pursue a long-term deal with the closer this offseason before he hits unrestricted free agency in 2026.
St. Louis Cardinals Should Prioritize Locking In Record Setting Reliever
Helsley Sets The record
Trevor Rosenthal’s record for most saves in a single season for the Cardinals stood for nearly 10 years. Rosenthal had 48 saves in 2015. The Cardinals won 100 games that year. In 2024 the Cardinals have won 82 games, yet Helsley had more saves than Rosenthal that year. He grabbed the record with a two-strikeout inning on Friday.
“It feels great, I worked really hard all year,” Helsley said after the game. “The guys in front of me did a great job. The whole bullpen deserves some credit for this. Without them I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”
Helsley was dominant in the ninth inning all year. He converted all but four save opportunities into saves. He also picked up seven wins. Helsley also has posted an impressive 2.07 ERA so far with two games remaining in the season.
“It’s been fun to watch him all year, he’s done an incredible job,” said Cardinal’s manager Oliver Marmol after Friday’s win. “His ability to just take the ball as and there’s no way we’ve played a lot of close games and there’s no way we get to this point without him doing it. He’s been obviously extremely effective. That clubhouse absolutely loved watching him take that.”
Contract Situation
Helsley had the best season of any Cardinals closer ever for relatively cheap. The 30-year-old avoided arbitration with a one year $3.8 million deal for 2024. Helsley is arbitration eligible again in 2025. If he signs another one-year deal, he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
The free agent market for closers was updated in a big way heading into 2024. The Houston Astros signed Josh Hader to a five-year $95 million contract this past offseason. Hader was coming off a season where he converted 33 saves out of 38 opportunities for the San Diego Padres. Hader is a good comparison to Helsley. Both are 30 years old. Hader has a 2.70 ERA in eight MLB season and Helsley has 2.63 ERA in six seasons.
The cost for a setup relief pitcher was also steep last offseason. Robert Stephenson received a three-year $33 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels. However, Stephenson had season ending elbow surgery before he ever threw a pitch for his new team in 2024. Former Cardinal Jordan Hicks also got $11 million a year when he signed a four-year $44 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. Hicks, however, got more run this season as a starter than a reliever. Though, most of his MLB experience when he signed that contract was as a reliever.
These contracts indicate a relief pitcher with Helsley’s pedigree will likely be somewhere between $11 million and $19 million a year. The Cardinals may be hesitant to give Helsley a long-term deal coming off a season as dominant as his 2024 campaign. However, if he repeats his success in 2025 with a one-year deal again his price on the open market could reach the heights that Hader’s did.
Improvement Isn’t A Mirage
A couple of key changes influenced Helsley’s success this season. One was keeping him to just the ninth inning. Previously Helsley was used in high leverage situations late in games. That could have come as early as the seventh inning. Helsley only pitched in the ninth inning or extras in 2024. In 2023, he had more than 30 percent of his work come in the seventh or eighth inning.
Helsley said throughout the season the change helped him mentally prepare for his outings. It also helped Marmol manage knowing he had an anchor if he could get to the ninth with a lead.
“We can definitely depend on him, he’s lights out. If you get to the ninth you were winning the ballgame,” Marmol said Friday. “He did it a lot. We played a lot of these close games, within three, within two, one run ball games. Every time we gave him the ball, he was filthy. Solid year for him.”
Helsley also relied less on his fastball in 2024. His average fastball velocity in 2024 was 99.6 miles per hour. It remained a weapon for him throughout the season. However, he tilted from it being his most used pitch to his second most pitch in 2024. In 2023 he through his fastball 56.2 percent of the time and his slider 36.7 percent of the time. In 2024 he through his slider most at 48.3 percent of the time and his fastball second at 45.5 percent of the time. His curveball remained a pitch he through fewer than eight percent of the time both seasons.
“Just trying to mix it up, keep guys off balance,” Helsley said about the change on Friday. “I feel like I’ve got three really good pitches. So, I’m trying to mix them up and attack them the best I can.”
Helsley’s Slider
The slider also dropped more for Helsley in 2024. He added 1.2 inches of vertical drop to it this season compared to 2023. Good enough to put the pitch in the top three percentile of vertical drops for sliders in the League this season.
Helsley’s three pitch arsenal had pitchers whiffing 36.1 percent of the time they tried to make contact this season. He stayed healthy all year. The closer appears to be in his prime and could be a featured bullpen arm on any contending team. If they Cardinals want to be a contender in 2025 and beyond, they should consider locking him into a multi-year contract.
Main Photo Credits: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
