photo: Patrick Wisdom (Memphis Redbirds)
St. Louis Cardinals press release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced prior to tonight’s (Saturday’s) game that they have purchased the contract of rookie infielder Patrick Wisdom from Memphis (AAA), and placed rookie infielder/outfielder Yairo Muñoz on the 10-day disabled list (right wrist sprain). The club also announced that it transferred right-handed pitcher Luke Gregerson to the 60-day disabled list.
Wisdom, 26, is batting a career-best .289 (103-for-357) with 14 home runs and 58 RBI in a team-leading 103 games this season for the first-place Redbirds. The 2018 Pacific Coast League Mid-Season All-Star has appeared defensively in 89 games at third base and seven at first.
Selected by the Cardinals in the supplemental first round (52nd overall) of the June, 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of St. Mary’s College of California, Wisdom has played in 747 career minor league games over seven minor league seasons. In 2017, Wisdom was named a PCL Post-Season All-Star at third base and was a key member of the PCL Champion Redbirds squad, where he was named Championship Series Most Valuable Player.
Wisdom ranks among Redbirds franchise leaders in home runs (50, 4th), RBI (177, 3rd), doubles (69, T6th), extra-base hits (122, 5th), total bases (500, 9th), games played (309, 10th), and at-bats (1,075, 10th).
With his first game appearance, Wisdom, who has been assigned uniform no. 21, will become the eighth player to make his Major League debut for the Cardinals this season, joining Jordan Hicks, Yairo Muñoz, Tyler O’Neill, Austin Gomber, Daniel Poncedeleon, Dakota Hudson, and Adolis García.
Muñoz has appeared in 76 games for St. Louis during his Major League debut season, batting .284 (59-for-208) with six home runs and 31 RBI, appearing defensively at six different positions. The 23-year-old ranks among National League rookies in batting (3rd), hits (10th), doubles (12, 9th), RBI (6th), on-base percentage (.348, 4th), slugging percentage (.428, 5th), extra-base hits (18, 10th), and stolen bases (5, 4th).
Brian Walton’s take
It remains to be seen how much playing time Wisdom will receive, since St. Louis’ greatest current need appears to be in the outfield, where he does not play. However, after six and a half years of Wisdom’s efforts, who cannot applaud him finally reaching baseball’s pinnacle?
He will now need to quickly impress to stake his claim to hold his precious 40-man roster spot into the fall. Otherwise, minor league free agency will await for the solid defender and long-time power hitter.
One way to measure how long it has been is to look at those college players drafted around Wisdom in 2012. Michael Wacha arrived in St. Louis in May 2013, Tim Cooney in April 2015 and Stephen Piscotty in July 2015. James Ramsey is still trying. The two players taken just after Wisdom in 2012 were both high schoolers. Steve Bean washed out, but Carson Kelly debuted almost two years ago, in September 2016.
A stats comparison of last year to this offers insight into the more balanced performing Wisdom here in 2018.
Average and walks are up, while power and strikeouts are down, though the latter remain high. Less swinging for the fences. One red flag, however, is his unbelievable batting average on balls in play of .376. That suggests a high level of good fortune inherent in his 2018 batting average spike.
| PA | HR | RBI | BB% | K% | ISO | BABIP | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | ||
| 2017 | Mem | 506 | 31 | 89 | 7.5% | 29.4% | 0.263 | 0.286 | 0.243 | 0.310 | 0.507 | 0.817 |
| 2018 | Mem | 405 | 14 | 58 | 10.1% | 27.2% | 0.190 | 0.376 | 0.289 | 0.363 | 0.479 | 0.842 |
The timing of Munoz’ injury is most unfortunate for him, as the utilityman has continued to earn playing time even after starting middle infielders Paul DeJong and Kolten Wong came off the disabled list – to the point of even playing in the short-handed outfield.
The Gregerson move was needed to create 40-man roster room for Wisdom. It is worth noting that since Gregerson went on the DL on July 26 with his right shoulder impingement, the soonest his return could possibly be would be is late September.
In other words, it appears his 2018 season, his first on a two-year deal signed in December, is likely over.
Backfill identified
To replace Wisdom at Memphis, Texas League All-Star infielder Tommy Edman was promoted from Double-A Springfield.
Coming off a recent 17-game hitting streak, the 23-year old batted .353 in June and .364 in July. That came after he struggled to a .197 average in May.
Edman’s slash line for the season – .298/.350/.408/.758 – is remarkably consistent with his career marks of .281/.351/.402/.753 in three seasons since he was drafted in the sixth round in 2016 from Stanford.
Edman is also 24-of-28 in stolen base attempts in 2018. Now that Oscar Mercado has been traded away, that is the highest steals total in the entire system.
Downstream ramifications
In terms of playing time backfill, Springfield has an experienced shortstop in Jose (Alexander) Martinez and a number of players could handle third for Memphis, including Edman, Edmundo Sosa, Alex Mejia and Ramon Urias, though none possess power like Wisdom.
In the meantime, the Memphis offense is further weakened, adding Wisdom to a recent list of departures that include starters Oscar Mercado, Adolis Garcia, Luke Voit and Tyler O’Neill, though the latter is back with the Redbirds at least temporarily on a rehab assignment.
Memphis and Springfield are down one player each from their full-strength 25, so further reinforcements could be coming. If nothing else, expect more change across the system tomorrow!
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