Yankees' Cade Winquest gaffe officially ends with a painless Cardinals whimper

Cade Winquest is currently a ghost. Thought he made the Yankees' Opening Day roster, he was not used in any of the 12 games in which he appeared on the roster. After the Yankees let him go in favor of Luis Gil ahead of Friday's game in Tampa, they proceeded to lose three in a row to a Rays team that game-planned them perfectly. "Curse of Winquest" loading? Very possible.

At the time of his DFA, there were a few potential outcomes surrounding his departure, but the likeliest was a return to the Cardinals. After all, though any MLB team could claim him on waivers, the Rule 5 rules would've still been in effect; he would've had to jump directly to the 40-man roster and be kept active all year (pending injury), lest he be offered back to the Cardinals for a sum of $50,000. Any claiming team jumping the Cards in line would've been subject to the same annoying stipulation.

Still, there was a chance the Yankees could've worked out a trade pre-waiver clearance. There was a chance that a rival like the Red Sox or Rays could've chosen to be extremely petty, claiming Winquest and using him a few times on the oft chance that the Yankees had gotten their calculations tremendously wrong.

On Monday, it became official. No chicanery. No last-ditch effort to trade something St. Louis valued more to keep Winquest in the system. He was a Cardinal again, and all this messing around was for naught.

Yankees return Cade Winquest to Cardinals after learning nothing about him (or everything?)

In limited duty this spring, Winquest did not look like a potential multi-inning weapon for the Yankees. He looked like a Double-A pitching prospect with a heater that regressed. He looked like more of a potential starter than a relief ace. He didn't look ready, though the Yankees were given the luxury of time to carry him on the MLB roster for a spell when the rotation only required four horses.

They didn't touch him once.

Yes, they mostly played close games. But there was not a moment in that stretch where they deemed him viable. That indicated they had already seen more than enough at the close of camp, and should have rendered their judgment at that moment in time.

He'll now head back to St. Louis, where at least his successes (or failures) will be confined to the NL Central ... for now. You know this will somehow come back around to get us someday.

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