photo: Rob Kaminsky (St. Louis Cardinals)
The St. Louis Cardinals signed left-handed relief pitcher Rob Kaminsky to a minor league contract for 2025.
If what follows feels like a repeat of other recent signings by the St. Louis Cardinals, it is.
As spring camps are opening across baseball this week, fringe players hoping for a major league contract are lowering their requirements to find a home for 2025.
The Cardinals continue to add players to the outer fringe of their roster and just beyond. The latest came on Sunday, February 9, with the signing of left-handed relief pitcher Rob Kaminsky to a minor league contract. There was no mention of a non-roster invitation to Spring Training in the announcement by the team, so we can assume it was not offered.
Kaminsky, 30, should be a familiar name to Cardinals fans. He will be on his third stint with the organization starting when he was taken in the first round of the 2013 Draft with a compensatory pick awarded for the departure of Kyle Lohse.
Kaminsky spent his first two and a half seasons in the Cardinals system as a dominant starting pitcher. In his first full year in the minors, he posted a 1.88 ERA in Class-A before tallying a 2.09 ERA in High-A in the first half of 2015. That summer, he was traded to Cleveland for a former all-star first baseman/outfielder, Brandon Moss.
In the Indians’ minor league system, Kaminsky moved to relief and struggled with a variety of injuries including forearm soreness and a sprained elbow ligament that kept him out for an entire season.
The Cardinals brought back Kaminsky as a minor league free agent prior to the COVID-interrupted 2020 season. The left-hander achieved his Major League dream, making his debut in August, but a month later, he was outrighted off the 40-man roster.
In 4 2/3 over five outings with St. Louis, Kaminsky yielded three runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks. He fanned three. He returned to free agency following the 2020 World Series.
In 2021, Kaminsky pitched in Triple-A for the Phillies before his release in August. He signed another minor league contract with the Mariners for 2022 and left as a free agent following the season.
After pitching for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Kaminsky re-signed with the Mariners. The pattern continued as he qualified for free agency that fall. After opening 2024 with the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League, he rejoined Seattle’s system that June. Back to free agency he went following the 2024 season.
To this point, Kaminsky’s only MLB experience came with St. Louis in 2020. He holds a career 3.50 ERA over 225 minor league appearances and is likely to serve as depth with Memphis in 2025.
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