Tony LaRussa has not made it official yet, but Jason Motte is currently the favorite to take over ninth-inning duties for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009.

Motte has been impressive in camp so far, flashing his usual high-90s heat and improving slider in Grapefruit League action. While spring training stats do not mean all that much, he has continued to miss bats in camp; he has struck out 16 against a lone walk in 11.1 innings pitched. In a wide-open battle for the Cardinals' closer job it did not take long for him to solidify his chances and catch the eye of LaRussa, who generally favors proven veteran relievers for the role. Ryan Franklin, Josh Kinney and top prospect Chris Perez all came to Florida with a chance to be land the key spot in St. Louis' bullpen. However, with Perez, perhaps the favorite going in, being optioned down to the minors last week, it appears that Motte has won the big prize-given the common arbitrator's infatuation with saves, a huge financial reward could be attached to his new job title if he can indeed hold down the fort.

Motte has an interesting background. The Cardinals selected him as a catcher out of Iona College-the pride of New Rochelle-in the 19th round of the 2003 draft. A strong-armed backstop, he hit .279/.335/.461 with five home runs in his final spring with the Gaels. The organization was impressed with his defensive skills, but obviously that line, with metal bats, was nothing to write home about for a player in the MAAC-not exactly a pipe line to professional baseball.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Motte struggled to do much of anything offensively with a wood bat in his hands. He was overmatched against advanced pitching, posting a line of .191/.220/.233 with a .453 OPS in 614 career minor league at-bats. That kind of offensive output was just not acceptable-even for a catcher with such a rocket arm. Rather than cutting ties with him completely after seeing enough of his struggles at the plate, though, the St. Louis player development staff decided to try him on out on the mound. The organization did not want to waste his best tool, just a rocket arm, and have since been rewarded for their efforts with a potential long-term relief asset. Considering how hard he throws, it was definitely the right choice.

After finally shedding the tools of ignorance and putting down the bat for good, Motte made his relief debut in the New York Penn League back in 2006. Despite his inexperience, he held his own relying on his plus-plus fastball, striking out 25 while posting a 3.08 ERA in 26.1 innings pitched. He then earned a promotion to High-A, where he flashed excellent stuff in a brief sample size of eight appearances in the Midwest League.

The best was yet to come. With his focus turned solely to pitching, Motte emerged as a legitimate relief pitching prospect in 2007. The hard-throwing right-hander got off to an excellent start in the Florida State League in the spring. With the organization intent on challenging him to see how he would perform against more advanced hitters, he quickly earned a promotion to Double-A. He was more than up to the task at hand, as he was just lights-out at Springfield. He posted a 2.20 ERA and rates of 0.6 HR/9 and 11.6 K/9 (63 K in 49.0 innings pitched), rewarding the Cards' aggressive approach.

Motte continued to miss bats at Triple-A in 2008, putting up a ridiculous 14.8 K/9 ratio at Memphis. He struck out 110 batters in 66.2 innings, overpowering hitters with his devastating two-pitch arsenal. He was more effective than his 3.24 earned run average indicates, evident by his outstanding 2.60 FIP. An unusually high .404 batting average on balls in play influenced his E.R.A. Outside of a 3.5 BB/9 rate, though, his other peripherals were excellent as well. He essentially did what any manager wants out of a reliever: avoid home runs while racking up strike outs. In addition, while the sample size is small, the then-26-year-old was effective against both right- and left-handed hitters; he registered a 1.61 FIP against lefties and 3.21 mark against righties.

Motte was then called up to the parent club down the stretch, perhaps providing a preview of what lies ahead. He earned his first big-league save while allowing just one earned run and striking out 16 against three walks in 11.0 innings pitched.

In his brief time with the Cardinals, Motte averaged 96.6 MPH on the radar gun on his fastball, a pitch that he threw 89.4 percent of the time (data courtesy of FanGraphs). He also throws a high-80s slider that can be downright filthy on occasion. With that kind of stuff, even though his fastball is flat at times, he has what it takes to succeed pitching high-leverage situations at the highest level.

Motte is obviously relatively new to pitching, so there will be some bumps along the way as he continues to develop his secondary offerings, improve his control and add movement to his primary pitch. The one potential concern is that he is more of fly ball pitcher who could become homer-prone. He needs to improve his command and could keep the ball down more, but, overall, he will likely represent a nice upgrade over the Cardinals' revolving door of closing options in '08, which dramatically affected their chances of remaining in contention in the National League Central.

Perez, a product of the University of Miami, also throws pure smoke. He averaged 95.2 MPH on his fastball during his time with St. Louis closing games late last summer. His repertoire features a vicious slider (85.1 MPH average velocity) and an improving curve ball as well. The former supplemental first-round pick-quite a different track to the show than Motte-has been inconsistent, though, and frustrated LaRussa by blowing a few saves in September. With such a high upside, he is going to be a valuable piece to the Cards' relief corps in short order, but the front office feels that he needs to improve his command and become more consistent. Look for him to get called up at some point in the spring, though, especially if Motte should falter.

LaRussa has not named his man yet officially, and, with one-time mainstay Jason Isringhausen finally out of the picture for good, he may have a short leash now that he lacks his desired trusted veteran closer. With that said, the club was wise not to spend millions on a big-name free-agent reliever, such as a Brian Fuentes, with so many promising candidates internally who could provide top-notch relief production on the cheap.

So, breathe easy, Cards fans. A revamped bullpen has the chance to be an area of strength. The surprising emergence and rapid ascension of Motte from failed catcher to stud relief prospect is a big reason why.

To reach Tyler Hissey, send an email to TylerHissey@gmail.com.