SAN DIEGO — The Cardinals on Tuesday signed 24-year-old right-handed reliever Guillermo Zuniga to a major-league contract. The deal, which did not have its financial terms disclosed when it was announced, brought the number of players on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster to 38.
Zuniga spent the last four seasons in the minors as a part of the Dodgers organization. During this past season with the Dodgers’ Class AA affiliate, Zuniga went 4-4 with a 4.77 ERA over 54 2/3 innings. He struck out 66 batters and notched 11 saves, which were tied for the third-most in the Texas League, and fanned 115 batters across his last 90 innings of work at the Class AA level.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound righty was originally signed by Atlanta in 2016 as an international free agent from Colombia. He elected to become a free agent at the end of the 2017 season after appearing in 13 games across two rookie-level affiliates within the Braves farm system during the 2016-17 seasons. Zuniga has not pitched past the Class AA level since making his pro debut. He has a 4.11 ERA over 225 1/3 innings in the minors and 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings for his career.
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After he posted back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2021 with a 33.8% strikeout rate, Zuniga’s strikeout rate dipped to 27.4% over this last season, per FanGraphs.
