photo: Cardinals Dominican Academy (St. Louis Cardinals)
The rookie-level Cardinals Dominican Summer League club fell just short of a .500 record, finishing in fifth place at 26-27. On the young roster, the hitters and starting pitching led the way, with the bullpen and defense not as good.
Overall
The Dominican Summer League (DSL) is at the rookie level within baseball’s minor league system. The league is a gateway into affiliated professional baseball for players not eligible for Major League Baseball’s annual First-Year Player Draft. The lack of eligibility is mainly due to not meeting the residency requirement.
(TCN members: Please refer here to the Week 1 DSL Cardinals Notebook, which provides an overview of the league, its current construct and how the team stood on the cusp of the 2024 season.)
St. Louis’ history in the DSL
After 13 seasons with one team in the league, St Louis expanded to two squads for the 2018 season, one of 17 organizations to field two teams. The original team became Cardinals Blue and the second team Cardinals Red. They shared the Baseball Oasis facility with one team home while the other was on the road. Except for the 2020 season, wiped out by a worldwide pandemic, this arrangement held through the 2021 season.
Heading into the 2022 season, St. Louis contracted its Dominican Summer League organization back to one team, the only one of 30 major league organizations to so do. With Cincinnati expanding to two squads for 2024, the Cardinals are one of just nine organizations fielding one DSL team.
The 2024 season
The 2024 season was comprised of 56 games running from Monday, June 3rd through Tuesday, August 20th. Sunday was a league-wide off-day with Wednesday’s scheduled off-days used for postponed or suspended contests, as needed.
The DSL Cardinals ended up playing 53 of 56 contests with three games cancelled: one at home versus the DSL Twins (30-25) on July 9th and two away – at DSL Mets Blue (21-33) on July 22nd and division rival DSL Nationals (23-30) on August 1st. It was the last game of the season on the 2024 schedule versus each of the three teams.
The team
The 35-player active roster consisted of 15 position players and 20 pitchers, 17 of them in their rookie campaign, and 18 with one year of prior professional experience. The Cardinals had no players with two years prior pro experience for the first time since the 2021 season. 34 of the 35 members of the active roster saw action in 2024, with the one exception Cuban pitcher Earle Zulueta, a 17-year-old right-handed rookie.
Marking each player’s age as of midnight of June 30th of the current season, per Baseball Reference, the 17 rookies consisted of two 16-year-olds, 10 17-year-olds, four 18-year-olds and one 20-year-old (righty Alan Reyes who was signed out of the Independent Mexican League where he pitched in 2023). Of the 18 players for whom the 2023 campaign was their rookie season, one was 17, 12 were 18, four were 19 and one was 20.
Sorting the data between position players and pitchers, the experience level of the 15 position players was eight rookies and seven one-year veterans. The eight rookies were two 16-year-olds and six 17-year-olds while the balance were six 18-year-olds and one 19-year-old.
Looking at the age and prior experience of the 20 hurlers, nine were rookies and 11 were one-year veterans. The nine rookies were comprised of four 17-year-olds, four 18-year-olds and one 20-year-old. The 11 veterans sorted out into one 17-year-old, six 18-year-olds, three 19-year-olds and one 20-year-old.
Three other players spent the entire 2024 season on the Injured List: 18-year-old outfielder Hancel Almonte, a one-year veteran, plus two rookie right-handers – 18-year-old Michael Correa and 16-year-old Ryan Rodriguez.
Overall, seven countries were represented: the Bahamas (one), Columbia (two), Cuba (two), the Dominican Republic (16), Mexico (three), Panama (two) and Venezuela (nine).
As has been the case in recent seasons, the 35-man roster remained almost entirely intact for the season’s entirety. The sole in-season roster addition or subtraction was the trade of rookie right-hander Oliver Gonzalez to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a three-way trade that brought righty Erick Fedde and outfielder Tommy Pham to St Louis on July 29, 2024.
Two other changes did occur, however, one in-season and the other after season’s end. Veteran right-hander Kener Perez was idled on July 26th for violation of baseball’s Performance Enhancement Drug policy. The 19-year-old received a 56-game suspension. On August 22nd, two days after the DSL season finished, right-handed starter Keiverson Ramirez was promoted to the rookie-level Florida Coast League.
The season
The 2024 season revealed a middle-of-the pack squad, performance-wise. The ’24 DSL Cardinals went 26-27 overall, finishing fifth in the eight-team Central Division, 14 games behind the DSL Giants Black (40-13), whose .755 winning percentage was the best in the league. (Side note: The Giants Black lost to the DSL Angels in the semi-finals of the playoffs and the Angels lost to the Red Sox Red in the finals.)
The Cardinals performed better at home, going 16-11 versus 10-16 on the road and went 17-21 within their division. Looking at the monthly splits, the Dominican Birds went 9-11 in June, 10-8 in July and 7-8 in August. (Note on month-by-month records: One game was suspended in July and completed in August. This report uses actual real time results and not retroactive adjusted records.)
Twice, the squad strung together a four-game winning streak. The first went from June 21st through 25th and the second on July 23rd through July 27th. The initial four-game winning spurt was followed by one of their two four-game losing skids, from June 26th through June 29th. An earlier four-game losing streak occurred near the season’s start from June 8th through June 12th.
The majority of the games played by the Dominican Birds were close, defined here as two runs or less. 29 of 53 contests met this definition, including three two-run victories, four two-run losses, seven one-run victories and 15 one-run losses. All four games in the June 26th through June 29th losing skid were decided by two or fewer tallies.
Comparing their results against other recent squads, the 2024 iteration was much better than their 2023 counterparts who went 17-36, finishing seventh in the nine-team South Division. However, the 2022 version of the DSL Cardinals performed the best of the three, going 33-26 while finishing fourth in the nine-team South Division.
Pitching
The staff had 20 hurlers take the mound, with 18-year-old reliever Bernard Mack the sole lefty. The average age of the staff was 18.0 years old, placing them in a tie with the DSL Rockies for ninth youngest among the 51 staffs in the DSL.
The youngest Cardinal pitcher was starter Branneli Franco, who turned 17 in February. He was one of nine rookies, one of whom, Cuban Earle Zulueta, never made his professional debut despite spending the entire season on the active roster. The remaining 11 hurlers all had one year of pro experience and ranged in age from reliever Guanchi Martinez, who turned 18 in mid-August, to starter Jefferson Moran who turned 20 on June 4th.
The rotation was in place from the season’s onset, unlike several prior seasons. Franco – he of the $800K signing bonus – was the Opening Day starter followed by a tandem pairing of rookies Gabriel Chinchilla and Oliver Gonzalez. Moran started next just before fellow veteran Keiverson Ramirez who preceded rookie Andrew Bolivar.
Three other pitchers – Reiner Lopez, Brailyn Paulino and Martinez – started at least one game, mainly filling in for Chinchilla whose last appearance was a July 22nd start and his tandem mate Gonzalez who was traded on July 29th. (Moran missed a rotation turn in early August.)
Overall, the pitching staff was slightly above average in most categories, with their efforts compiled in 428 2/3 frames, 14th place. Their results ranked them from 17th to 29th in six statistical categories. See the chart below.
| Final Pitching Stats (53 games) | |||||||
| Period | IP | ERA | WHIP | BAA | SO/9 | BB/9 | K/BB |
| Year End | 428.2 | 4.38 | 1.51 | 0.243 | 8.97 | 5.39 | 1.66:1 |
| Rank | 14th | 17th | 23rd* | 29th** | 23rd | 19th | 22nd |
| First | 487.2 | 2.95 | 1.21 | 0.198 | 11.7 | 2.87 | 2.95:1 |
| Team | Rangers Red | Red Sox Red | Tigers 2 | Pirates Gold | Rangers Red | Tigers 2 | Tigers 2 |
| *4-way tie with Astros Blue, Rays and Padres Gold | |||||||
| **tied with Tigers 2 | |||||||
Offense
The offense had 15 players take the field in 2024: eight rookies and seven one-year veterans. Their average age of 17.4 placed them in a three-way tie for 12th with the Phillies Red and White Sox.
The eight first-year players were comprised of two 16-year-olds and six 17-year-olds. The seven-player balance included six 18-year-olds and one 19-year-old. The youngest was Venezuelan right fielder Brayan Amoroso who turned 17 on July 7th. The eldest was Cuban third baseman Yoerny Junco who turns 20 in early November.
The two rookies signed to the highest reported bonuses were Dominican shortstop Yairo Padilla ($760 K) and Dominican third baseman Edward Guribe ($700 K). The two 17-year-olds made solid contributions at the plate but were absent from the line-up for extended periods.
As outlined in the chart below, the offense was productive, placing in the upper 25% in most categories. Their chief strength was raw power, with the team’s 33 home runs ranking third best. (Second place went to the Giants Black with 34 bombs while LAD Mega’s 49 home runs was tops.) The Cardinals went yard once every 51.73 at bats, also good for third best. Their 23 triples placed them sixth, 10 off the lead set by the Brewers 1.
On the flip side of the performance coin, this team r-e-a-l-l-y did not walk much, working 250 bases-on-balls in 1,707 at bats (53 games). That effort placed them 32nd of 51 teams. LAD Bautista led the league with 405 walks in 1,578 at bats (55 games).
The Dominican Birds also fanned 500 times in 2024. That placed them seventh highest in K’s.
| Final Offensive Stats (53 games) | ||||||
| Period | AB | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | BABIP |
| Year End | 1707 | 0.254 | 0.362 | 0.377 | 0.739 | 0.334 |
| Rank | 10th | 9th | 26th | 7th | 12th | 5th |
| First | 1843 | 0.298 | 0.420 | 0.408 | 0.810 | 0.355 |
| Team | Rangers Red | Rockies | LAD Bautista | Rockies | Rangers Red | Tigers 2 |
Positions and Defense
Below is a chart listing all 15 position players and the number of games played at each position. The nine bolded names were the Opening Day starters.
| Players | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | DH |
| Amoroso, Brayan+ | 2 | 33 | |||||||
| Arthur, Andru | 25 | 15 | |||||||
| Asprilla, Paulo | 16 | 6 | |||||||
| Cabrera, Juan Pablo+ | 12 | 8 | |||||||
| Guribe, Edward+ | 8 | 11 | |||||||
| Junco, Yoerny | 9 | 24 | 5 | ||||||
| Lebron, Cristofer+ | 24 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Lucena, Yaxson+ | 21 | 11 | |||||||
| Padilla, Yairo+ | 35 | ||||||||
| Rodriguez, Rainiel+ | 26 | 15 | |||||||
| Rojas, Daniel | 20 | 20 | |||||||
| Roquez, Fernando | 19 | 9 | 9 | ||||||
| Saez, Christian+ | 34 | 1 | |||||||
| Taveras, Bracewell | 23 | 5 | |||||||
| Velasquez, Facundo | 41 | 5 | |||||||
| + = Rookie |
Impacting the chart’s numbers was the extended absence of several players. (For the purpose of this report, extended absence is defined as absent from the line-up for five consecutive games.) They are:
Edward Guribe was very active over the season’s first month, alternating between third base and designated hitter (DH) only to miss action entirely from July 5th through August 16th. He returned as the DH in the last season’s final three games.
Yoerny Junco was Opening Day designated hitter but did not play again until June 26th.
Rookie Christian Saez did not make his pro debut until June 20th, day 12 of the season.
Starting shortstop Yairo Padilla was absent for a week in early July and then did not play again after August 8th, a span of nine contests.
Bracewell Taveras, the starting second baseman, did not play over his team’s final 19 games, dating from July 26th onward.
Guribe, Padilla and Taveras were among the team’s better hitters.
Defense is very difficult to ascertain at this level. The players combine extreme youth with a lack of experience, the combination of which does not lend itself to defensive excellence.
That being said, veteran Andru Arthur was not charged with an error in 282 innings (40 games) in the outfield (25 in left and 15 in center). Caveat: One does not get charged with an error if one cannot get to the ball. There is no way of knowing if that was the case with Arthur.
Another player of note is center fielder Facundo Velasquez who committed just one bobble in 329 1/3 frames, 42 contests.
Conclusion
The DSL Cardinals generated average results, driven by their offense and starting pitching. The rotation was solid, by and large, but both the bullpen and defense were weaknesses many of their 19 close losses resulting from a leaky relief and unearned runs from shaky defense. The substantial time missed by several key position players impacted the team but to what extent cannot fully be determined.
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