The St. Louis Cardinals have a stellar closer not named Ryan Franklin, but you won’t see him closing games regularly for a while still. His name is Jason Motte, and he’s one of the best setup men throwing in baseball right now. The 27-year old hurler has spent his entire career with the Cards, and is one of the few pitchers in baseball to have been called up once and never been handed a return ticket to Triple A.

Motte was drafted by the Cardinals in the 19th round of the 2003 amateur draft as a catcher. In 2006, he broke his thumb and his offense suffered as a result. In order to save his career, he applied his knowledge of pitching and moved to the other end of the battery, becoming a pitcher and found himself continuing to advance through the minor league system. He was called up to St. Louis and made his MLB debut on Sep. 3, 2008.

Motte’s invite to the big leagues has turned out to be permanent. He won a spot in the bullpen after the 2009 Spring Training and appeared in 69 games, closing out 14 of them, although he did not record a save. He threw 56.2 innings and recorded 54 strike outs while having a 4.76 ERA and 1.412 WHIP. So far in 2010, he’s thrown 10.2 innings and has nine strikeouts, a 1.69 ERA and a 1.125 WHIP.

The Cardinals’ righty is entering the prime of his career and looks like he may have closer potential. His value has only gone up since his hand injury in 2006 and is turning heads around the league. St. Louis already has an effective closer in Franklin, so the Cards may have some interesting trade bait in Motte. However, Franklin is 37 years old, so maybe Motte can serve as a future replacement at the back end of the St. Louis bullpen. It’s an interesting situation the Cardinals find themselves in. Too many closers is a lot easier to deal with than not enough.