St. Louis Cardinals Make First Summer Camp Cuts

photo: Zack Thompson (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

The St. Louis Cardinals have reassigned three pitchers and a catcher to their alternate camp, Summer Camp South in Springfield, MO. The club made the announcement via social media on Thursday morning, July 16.

The timing coincides with the opening of the alternate camp, which will run essentially like a Triple-A club in parallel with St. Louis during the shortened 60-game MLB season. Regular intrasquad games are expected throughout the summer between a roster that is a mix of MLB-ready reserves and less-experienced, but high-level prospects.

It should be noted that the aforementioned three pitchers were the later additions made to Summer Camp on July 7 to cover for the continued absences of pitchers Alex Reyes, Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ricardo Sanchez.

Relievers Elledge and Kaminsky threw during Wednesday’s workout and Thompson, The Cardinal Nation’s no. 8 prospect, took the mound for live batting practice following Sunday’s intrasquad contest.

Ivan Herrera (St. Louis Cardinals)

Herrera, TCN’s no. 6 prospect, becomes the second catcher in Summer Camp South, joining Julio Rodriguez.

All four were essentially non-roster invitees in Summer Camp. They are not on St. Louis’ 40-man roster, but are part of the 60-man pool of players allowed for 2020.

Coach Jose Oquendo, minor league pitching coordinator Tim Leveque and hitting coordinator Russ Steinhorn have also left St. Louis to take on the leadership of the Springfield camp.

As manager Mike Shildt shared with media Wednesday evening, the team plans to keep its full complement of position players in St. Louis until the end of camp one week from now. This enables them to play intrasquad games with two full rosters of players.

St. Louis will cut down its roster from its current 43 to 30 players by July 24, Opening Day. After the initial home series, the club will embark on a three-city road trip, during which they will be allowed to carry a taxi squad of up to three additional players, one of whom is required to be a catcher. The trio will be sourced from Springfield.

The remainder of the players to be cut from St. Louis by July 24 will be added to the Summer Camp South roster, which currently consists of 16 players.


Full roster detail at The Cardinal Nation

To view the two Summer Camp rosters and to track the status of the Cardinals’ 60-man pool, 40-man roster as well as all players in the system by position and level, check out the Roster Matrix, always free and updated here at The Cardinal Nation. Also included is every player transaction across the full organization all year long.

Detailed team rosters for the entire system can be accessed via the red menu column at the top left (see “ROSTERS/PLAYERS/MOVES”).


For more

As manager Mike Shildt and selected players meet with the media after daily Summer Camp practices, summaries of their comments are posted on The Cardinal Nation’s free message board. (A userid is not required to read forum comments.)

St. Louis “Summer Camp” news

Jack Flaherty via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

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