photo: Palm Beach manager Gary Kendall, interpreter James Bae, Won-Bin Cho (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Low-A Palm Beach affiliate had the best first half record in the Florida State League East Division, and with a very different roster, was in the race until the end in the second half as well. The Beach Birds excelled primarily due to their young and talented starting pitching, led by FSL Pitcher of the Year, Max Rajcic.
2023 results
The Palm Beach Cardinals represent the St. Louis Cardinals in the Low-A Florida State League’s East Division. There are 10 teams in the FSL – four in the East and six in the West. The teams usually play in their MLB affiliate’s spring training facility. Spring training ballparks tend to be larger than most minor league parks which helps this league be pitching oriented.
The regular-season schedule began on April 6 and ended on September 10. Each team was scheduled for 132 games, but due to inclement weather, five of the Beach Birds’ games were canceled. Playing 127 games, Palm Beach logged an almost even split of 64 wins and 63 losses.
To create two postseason entrants in each division, the season is split into halves with the two winners advancing. With a 37-28 record before the break, the Cardinals took the division by 2 ½ games over neighbor Jupiter (Miami), punching their playoff ticket.
In the second half, the Beach Birds and Hammerheads again battled for the lead. With a late 7-3 surge, Jupiter won the division by six games as the skidding second-place Cards lost eight of 10 in September.
That lack of momentum continued into the playoffs as the Cardinals were swept by Jupiter two games straight, losing both extra inning contests by a single run. Details on the playoff series:
Palm Beach finished the regular season with a home record of 30-33 and road mark of 34-30. However, the usually clear line between home and away was severely blurred in 2023 due to the renovation of Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium. This caused several home series to be moved to opponents’ stadiums with Palm Beach batting last.
From August 1 through the end of the season, both Palm Beach and Jupiter relocated to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in nearby West Palm. That facility is the spring home of the Astros and Nationals, but neither organization competes in the Florida State League.
For the season, the Beach Birds had a +13 run differential while logging a losing record against opponents with a winning record (27-34). They were 6-5 in extra inning contests (but 0-2 in the playoffs) and were 19-19 in one-run games (again 0-2 in the postseason).
Coaching staff
The 2023 Beach Birds were led by veteran manager Gary Kendall, in his second year in the Cardinals system. The long-time skipper in the Baltimore Orioles organization also guided the 2022 Palm Beach club into the postseason and was The Cardinal Nation’s Manager of the Year.
Giovanni Carrara was also back as the pitching coach for the Beach Birds after moving up from the Florida Complex League Cardinals prior to the 2022 season. Carrara was a relief pitcher primarily for the Dodgers for 11 MLB seasons from 1995-2006 and has coached in the Cardinals system since 2015.
Willi Martin served as the hitting coach this season after playing the same role at Peoria last year. Hired for the 2020 season that was not held due to COVID, Martin had been scheduled to work as the fourth coach at Springfield.
Former St. Louis outfielder and 2022 Florida Complex League hitting coach Bernard Gilkey was also on the staff with Manny Santamaria the affiliate fellow, focusing on video and technology. Campbell Quirk was back from 2022 as strength and conditioning coach and Jeff Case also returned as trainer.
Stats view – hitting
32 players made at least one plate appearance for Palm Beach in 2023, excluding St. Louis rehabber Paul DeJong. 16 had at least 100 PAs and eight took 200 or more. The three constants were infielder Michael Curialle (457 PAs), outfielder Won-Bin Cho (452) and infielder Lizandro Espinoza (413).
In the 10-team FSL, Palm Beach hitters averaged 21.2 years of age, sixth oldest in the league and just above the 21.0 average.
The offense was a middle of the pack unit, fifth in runs scored at 4.97 per game. The Beach Birds were seventh in hits (985), fourth in doubles and home runs (214 and 39) and sixth in stolen bases (155) with a good success rate of 79%.
The hitters were sixth in walks (589) and eighth in strikeouts (1151). Their slash stats were .241 (fourth) / .348 (fifth) / .360 (eighth) / .708 (seventh).
Stats view – pitching
As usual, pitching was the strength of the Beach Birds, but there was a wide gulf between the excellent starters and the subpar relievers.
A total of 31 pitchers took the mound for the Cardinals in 2023, slightly below last season when 34 pitchers appeared. However, only 14 of them threw at least 20 innings for Palm Beach and just five reached 70 IP.
The Beach Birds staff averaged 21.6 years of age, the youngest in the league which averaged 22.2.
The team ERA of 4.44 was fifth, but their batting average against of .241 was only eighth. They allowed 96 home runs, tied for third most, and they were last in strikeouts by a fair margin with 1085. Just ahead of the Cardinals, the ninth-ranked squad had 1142 Ks with the league leader at 1278.
However, Cards pitchers walked the fewest number of batters. In fact, their total of 472 was a whopping 81 walks less than the second-best staff. This huge advantage in free passes issued made for a strikeout to walk ratio of 2.3 to 1, again best in the FSL.
Starting pitchers logged an aggregate ERA of 3.91, the lowest in the league. Their batting average against of .232 was third lowest. They walked the second fewest number of batters at 198 and were second in strikeouts at 585. 11 different pitchers started at least one game for the Beach Birds, but just five made more than 10 starts.
However, the relievers struggled. Their 5.11 ERA was ninth of 10 as opposing hitters averaged .253 against them, the highest in the league. A positive was their FSL-low walk total of 274, but their meager strikeout total of 500 was dead last, an eye-popping 145 fewer than the ninth-ranked bullpen. They earned 26 saves against 18 blown opportunities, with their conversion rate of 59.1% typical for the level.
Stats view – defense
A year after they had the best fielding percentage in the league at .977, the 2023 Cardinals dropped to eighth at .969. The defense committed 138 errors. They completed 256 double plays and allowed 17 passed balls.
Catchers for Palm Beach, led by prospect Leonardo Bernal, allowed a league low 121 stolen bases and caught 44 runners stealing. The caught stealing rate of 27% was fourth best in the FSL.
Roster considerations
As Kendall points out, every year in the Florida State League is made up of three seasons in one. First, there is the opening day roster. Then, as promotions to Peoria were earned or injury replacements were needed, new players joined the team from extended spring training as backfill. In July, a new wave of players from the draft became first-time professionals with the Beach Birds, with another batch of incumbents promoted upward.
To help put the churn into context, just 10 players from the 30-man opening day roster remained active as the season closed, six pitchers and four position players. In between, there were 106 transactions as many of the other 20 roster spots changed multiple times.
Many moves were upward to Peoria, but even more were made up of young players up from the Florida Complex League receiving their first taste of full season baseball. As noted in our FCL Season Review, some stuck with Palm Beach but others were returned to rookie ball for more seasoning. Of course, the new draftees were also activated once signed.
Key roster moves
In-season promotions to Peoria included reliever Gustavo Rodriguez (April), relievers Roy Garcia and Chris Gerard and infielders Javier Bolivar and Brody Moore (May), reliever Edwin Nunez, starter Max Rajcic, infielder R.J. Yeager and outfielder Alex Iadisernia (June), and reliever Joseph King, catcher Carlos Linarez and outfielder Chris Rotondo (July).
In July, 13 newly signed players were assigned to Palm Beach – OF Chase Davis (1st round), OF Zach Levenson (5), RHP Jason Savacool (6), SS Dakota Harris (11), OF Brayden Jobert (12), 1B William Sullivan (13), 2B Tre Richardson (15), RHP Tyler Bradt (16), 2B Trey Paige (17), C Graysen Tarlow (19), C Chase Adkison (free agent), 1B Ross Friedrick (FA) and OF Kade Kretzschmar (FA).
Joining Palm Beach at the trade deadline was right-hander Zack Showalter, acquired from Baltimore as part of the Jack Flaherty trade. However, after just one short outing, Showalter went onto the injured list. He was later joined by another trade acquisition, catcher Sammy Hernandez from Toronto (by way of the FCL Cardinals).
On August 10, the team suffered a major loss when prospect catcher Leonardo Bernal suffered a season ending injury. Hernandez was his replacement.
In September, several Beach Birds received a brief taste of higher-level ball to conclude their 2023s. Pitcher Benjamin Arias, catcher Graysen Tarlow and outfielder Kade Kretzschmar went to Peoria and pitcher Pete Hansen temporarily jumped all the way to Memphis.
At the end of the season, pitchers Jose Moreno and Hayes Heinecke were released. In August, Australian catcher Jake Burns was also let go. July releases included outfielder Adanson Cruz, catcher Jose Zapata and infielder Brandon Hernandez. Former second round draft pick, outfielder Tre Fletcher was released in May.
Award winners
At the conclusion of the season, the Cardinals received three league All-Star nods, all starting pitchers. Max Rajcic is the FSL Pitcher of the Year and Pete Hansen and Hancel Rincon were also recognized as being among the best in the league.
TCN Top Prospects
During the 2023 season, Palm Beach featured 12 of The Cardinal Nation’s Top 50 prospects in the Cardinals organization. They include (August rankings) #8 prospect Leonardo Bernal, #9 Chase Davis, #12 Brycen Mautz, #14 Max Rajcic, #15 Pete Hansen, #17 Won-Bin Cho, #18 Jonathan Mejia, #24 Joshua Baez, #25 Edwin Nunez, #28 Zack Showalter, #39 Zach Levenson and #50 Sammy Hernandez.
What is next?
Much more detail on the Palm Beach Cardinals’ top hitters, relievers and starting pitchers is coming as we select the best of the best in upcoming articles in this series.
Check out The Cardinal Nation’s annual article series highlighting team results and top players and pitchers across the entire St. Louis Cardinals system. The Peoria Chiefs Team Review is next up.
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