photo: Chen-Wei Lin (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Springfield’s Torres led all Cardinals minor leaguers in average hits and runs and hit first walk-off home run. Palm Beach’s Lin dominated opponents with a 4-0 record and 0.62 ERA across five starts.
St. Louis Cardinals release
The St. Louis Cardinals today (Thursday, September 5) announced their selections for Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Month for August, with Springfield Cardinals (AA) outfielder/infielder Bryan Torres and Palm Beach Cardinals (A) right-handed starting pitcher Chen-Wei Lin (pronounced zhen-way) taking home the honors.
Torres, 27, slashed .418/.491/.538 and led all qualified Cardinals minor leaguers in batting average, on-base percentage, hits (38) and runs (20) while ranking second in OPS (1.029), total bases (49) and doubles (8). The left-handed hitting leadoff man had multi-hit efforts in his 13 of his 23 games played, including eight games with three-or-more hits and a career-high 5-for-5 game on August 14 at Frisco. He also slugged his first career walk-off home run, a two-out solo blast in the bottom of the ninth, on August 23 vs. Tulsa. It marks Torres’ first Player of the Month award in his affiliated-playing career.
Prior to joining the Cardinals organization after signing as a minor league free-agent last September, the Puerto Rico native spent the 2022-23 seasons in the American Association where he won back-to-back batting titles, set the single-season stolen base record and was named 2023 All-Star Game MVP. Following the 2023 season, Torres was named as Baseball America’s Independent/Partner Leagues Player of the Year. This season, he leads all Double-A hitters with a .324 batting average and 136 hits, along with 30 extra-base hits, 73 runs scored and 32 stolen bases in 111 games.
Lin, 22, posted a 4-0 record with a 0.62 ERA (2 ER/29.0 IP), 0.90 WHIP, with 36 strikeouts and just two extra-base hits allowed across five August starts. He made three starts allowing no runs, including a season-high 7.0 shutout innings on August 1 vs. Bradenton. The 6’7” native of Taiwan also tallied a career-high nine strikeouts in his most recent start on August 29 vs. Daytona and is currently riding a 11.0 scoreless inning streak.
Signed by the Cardinals as an international free-agent and the first player ever signed out of Taiwan in July 2023, Lin becomes the fourth different Palm Beach pitcher to take home Pitcher of the Month honors this season, joining Quinn Mathews, Darlin Saladin and José Dávila. Overall this season, he is 10-5 across 21 starts (all with Palm Beach) with a 2.76 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 111.0 innings pitched.
Brian Walton’s take
Congratulations to both players.
In our corresponding August awards, we selected Torres’ Springfield teammate Jimmy Crooks, instead, and Lin as The Cardinal Nation Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively.
You can review the August stats of over a dozen standouts in these articles.
The Cardinal Nation August 2024 Player of the Month – Jimmy Crooks
The Cardinal Nation’s August 2024 Pitcher of the Month – Chen-Wei Lin
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