When the St. Louis Cardinals selected Matt Bowman in the Rule 5 draft before the 2016 season, it wasn’t clear how he’d fit with the MLB club. Derrick Goold reported then that GM John Mozeliak suggested Bowman would have a chance to win a long relief role.
Bowman struggled at AAA in 2015, so the idea that he could become an impact arm for the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen seemed far-fetched. Yet, he accumulated 67.2 innings, more than any Cardinals reliever not named Seung-hwan Oh. Additionally, with a 3.46 ERA, he solidified himself as one of the team’s more reliable relief options.