Good News and Bad: Cardinals Sign 13th-Rounder Tommy Jew

photo: Tommy Jew (Eric Isaacs/UC Santa Barbara)

It was good news with a hint of bad news, as well, for the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.

After no action on the signing front since June 19th, the St. Louis Cardinals put their 32nd player drafted in 2019 under contract with the addition of Tommy Jew.

However, the outfielder has been placed on the 60-day injured list of Short-Season State College, meaning he will not play this summer.

Tommy Jew

The organization’s 13th-round draft choice this June hails from Cal Santa Barbara. As a junior, Jew could have chosen to return to school and had until this Friday, July 12 to make his decision.

An injury suffered in UCSB’s NCAA Stanford regional game on June 1st must have been a factor.

According to a game report, the team captain hit a chopper to third and as he legged out an infield single, he immediately fell to the ground in pain. Jew was carted off the field with what was determined to be a broken leg, an injury that required surgery and is obviously serious enough to keep him from suiting up this summer.

Prior to the addition of Jew, the Cardinals had nine remaining unsigned draftees. Any of them who receives more than $125,000 to sign would use up a portion of the team’s remaining spending surplus of approximately $164,000. Jew’s signing bonus has not yet been disclosed.

Update: Per MLB Pipeline, Jew signed for $125,000. This leaves the team excess cap money to try to sign one or more of the eight unsigned players in the final few days remaining before the deadline.

On Draft day 3, The Cardinal Nation’s Blake Newberry wrote the following about the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder:

Jew had a lot of success in summer leagues throughout his collegiate career. He won MVP of the New England Collegiate Baseball League in 2017 and played in the Cape Cod League in 2018.

In the spring he led the Gauchos in home runs with 11, showing a nice uptick in power from the nine combined home runs he hit in his previous two years. He projects to stick in center field as a professional due to his plus speed. He swiped 20 bases in 23 attempts showing a penchant for stealing and using his speed efficiently.

Jew also shows off average arm strength in the outfield, as well as good instincts, leaving hope that he will become a plus defender in center field.

At the beginning of his college career he was more a slap hitter who racked up singles but could not hit for extra bases. However, in his junior year he began to hit the ball with authority. Unfortunately, as his power increased, so did his strikeout rate.

He needs to figure out how to hit for some power without striking out at a high rate to succeed as a hitter. However, if his bat can come around, he shows enough defensive promise to provide value at this pick.


For more

To track the Cardinals’ draft picks, the 25- and 40-man rosters 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.

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