photo: Gordon Graceffo (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Following Saturday’s game, the St. Louis Cardinals reduced their Spring Training roster to 51 players. Seven players were optioned or assigned to minor league camp, including three pitchers ranked among The Cardinal Nation’s Top 20 Prospects.
St. Louis Cardinals press release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced today (Saturday, March 11) that the team has reduced its Spring Training roster to 51 players, with seven players optioned or assigned to minor league camp.
The team optioned pitcher Jake Walsh and infielder José Fermín to the Memphis (AAA) roster and re-assigned non-roster pitchers Gordon Graceffo, Michael McGreevy and Dalton Roach to minor league camp along with non-roster catchers Nick Raposo and Wade Stauss.
Brian Walton’s take
For the second Saturday in a row, the Cardinals cut exactly seven players from big-league camp. With 12 players away at the World Baseball Classic, these moves cut the official camp roster down to 39 active players. The 12 will trickle back in as their WBC teams are eliminated.
As we have seen daily, a side benefit is that minor leaguers with no current chance of making the team are given an opportunity to play in the 1:00 p.m. games. Saturday’s examples included outfielders Won-Bin Cho and Chris Rotondo.
This week’s cuts did not include any players who had a decent chance to make the team out of spring training, but do include three top 20 pitchers in the system according to The Cardinal Nation. They are starters Graceffo (no. 4), McGreevy (no. 5) and reliever Walsh (no. 20). All three should be prominent pitchers on the Triple-A Memphis roster.
Top prospects Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn plus pitcher Tink Hence and shortstop Jeremy Rivas, all non-roster invitees, are the only players remaining in camp who finished 2022 at Double-A (or in the case of Rivas and Hence, below – High-A Palm Beach). Rivas and Hence are also not surprisingly the two youngest players in camp.
Graceffo, 22, made two spring appearances including one start. The right-hander yielded four runs, all earned, in 4 2/3 innings on six hits, three walks and hit a batter.
Graceffo and McGreevy should start their second full professional season in the Memphis rotation with their likely goal to enter the competition to join St. Louis later in the year. With neither on the 40-man roster, they will not be added until they are called upon for the MLB debuts. In the meantime, Triple-A growth is likely number one on their agendas.
McGreevy, 22, had just one spring appearance and it did not go well. The right-hander was charged with six runs, all earned, on five hits, two hit batters and a walk while securing four outs.
Walsh appeared in three games totaling 2 1/3 innings. The 27-year-old was charged with two runs, with his lone hit yielded a home run. He hit a batter, walked another and struck out one.
It is a bit disappointing that Walsh did not stick in camp longer due to him making his MLB debut in 2022 and the relatively thin right-handed relief depth currently.
Roach, 26, was primarily a starter for Springfield in 2022 (5.65 ERA), and earned his first non-roster camp invitation. He had one clean spring inning on one hit, no walks and no strikeouts.
Fermin, 23, joined the Cardinals in an off-season cash trade with Cleveland. He suffered a quad injury on March 4 that was said to be significant. Prior to that, the right-handed hitter had a single and a strikeout in eight spring at-bats.
The Dominican Republic native is the only 40-man roster infielder expected to begin 2023 with Memphis, though that could be on the injured list.
Raposo, 24, who finished 2022 at Springfield, singled in his only spring plate appearance.
Stauss, 23, who has yet to play above High-A, was one of the extra catchers needed to handle the large number of pitchers in camp. He fanned in his lone spring plate appearance.
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