St. Louis Cardinals Will Need Perfection From Mitchell Boggs

The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in a bit of a crisis with just one week before the regular season due to an injury to closer Jason Motte. St. Louis is going to turn to Mitchell Boggs to be the team’s closer until Motte returns. The team may be hoping for his quick return considering Boggs lacks experience as a closer with just four career saves, all of them came in the same season in 2011.

Boggs is a very talented late-inning reliever as proven by his 2.21 ERA last season for St. Louis, though I’m not positive that Boggs is a closer, at least for the long term. Boggs has finished 54 games in his career, so he knows about pitching in the ninth inning even if it wasn’t with the same pressure.\

I think that Boggs needs to nail down each of his save chances during this opportunity for St. Louis to stay competitive in the National League Central. The division may be down some this season, but you can lose the division in April and May the same as August and September.

This is going to be a huge test for Boggs and the Cardinals’ bullpen as a whole. St. Louis can only hope that Boggs is up for the challenge and that Motte isn’t gone for too long, or the season could be over before it starts.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.