Former Tiger Drew VerHagen Becomes The First Post-Lockout Signing

Drew VerHagen, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time. 

I was stunned by this. Drew VerHagen was a pretty big prospect coming out of Vanderbilt. For people who don't know, Vanderbilt baseball is to MLB what Alabama football is to the NFL. They just pumped out talent like it's nothing. I was at VerHagen's first start in 2014. It was the first game of the doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Indians). The Tigers were high on him, but it was also a period in which the farm system was barren, and they hyped up the talents of guys like Steven Moya, Hernán Pérez, Drew VerHagen, and some guy named Robbie Ray (never heard of him). 

VerHagen's stuff was always pretty solid, and he pitched some good baseball out of the pen in the latter part of 2015, including a 16 inning scoreless streak over 11 appearances from mid-August to mid-September of that year. He was never really able to sustain it, and he last pitched in the Major Leagues in 2019 for one of the worst baseball teams of all time, the 2019 Detroit Tigers. He then went over to Japan to pitch for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japan Pacific League. His numbers across the board in Japan were pretty solid. In two seasons, he was 13-14 with a 3.49 ERA and nine strikeouts per nine innings. He started games in Japan, though given the depth in the Cardinals rotation, I'd be surprised if he doesn't pitch exclusively out of the pen in St. Louis. With that said, maybe I'm just a novice when it comes to this stuff, but are those numbers outstanding enough to warrant a Major League contract? The Cardinals have the money, but I'm genuinely surprised they've spent some of that money on Drew VerHagen. Perhaps there was an uptick in fastball velocity or something, similar to another former Tiger, Drew Smyly, who found his way back to the Majors after going several years without seeing the movies. Good for VerHagen, though. It's tough to make the major leagues, and it's even harder to stay there. I hope he pitches lights out, just don't do it against the Tigers