St. Louis Cardinals Send Five Pitchers to Minor League Camp
With spring training quickly nearing its end, the St. Louis Cardinals further trimmed their roster on Saturday afternoon, optioning lefthanded pitcher Nick Greenwood and righty Sam Tuivailala to Triple-A Memphis while reassigning righthanders Miguel Socolovich and Zach Petrick and lefties Dean Kiekhefer and Tim Cooney to minor-league camp. The moves leave the Cardinals with 19 pitchers in big-league camp, a group that includes non-roster righthanders Mitch Harris, Marcus Hatley, and Carlos Villanueva.
Though none of the five pitchers cut on Saturday stood a serious chance of making the Opening Day roster, several of them could definitely make contributions at points during the 2015 season.
The 27-year-old Greenwood made a rather significant impression in the majors last season during what was supposed to be a very brief stay. The lefthanded swingman was 2-1 with a 4.75 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, and a .259 opponent batting average in 19 games, including one start. While his numbers may not jump off the page, his ability to consistently save the bullpen in his long relief role was outstanding, and it could allow him to have an extended big-league career down the road.
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Unfortunately, Greenwood will have some hurdles to climb to see big-league action this year, as he’s currently behind
Randy Choate,
Sam Freeman,
Kevin Siegrist, and possible bullpen options
Jaime Garciaand
Marco Gonzaleson the lefty reliever depth chart. He’ll also have to compete with
Tyler Lyons, who has already been optioned to Triple-A but has a similar skill set to Greenwood.
Tuivailala, who is ranked as the Cardinals’ 12th-best prospect by MLB.com due to his triple-digits fastball, may have an easier path to the bigs this year due to his righthandedness. The 22-year-old former infielder, who broke into the majors by getting some mop-up duty during two games in September of 2014, may end up being the club’s next righty bullpen option if someone among
Seth Maness,
Matt Belisle,
Jordan Walden, and
Trevor Rosenthalgoes down and veteran Carlos Villanueva opts out of his minor-league deal at the end of spring training.
With that said, he could have an extra obstacle thrown in his way if
Carlos Martinez, who has not fared well in his battle to win the fifth starter spot, ends up in the bullpen for a third straight year. Obviously, Tuivailala, who gave up three earned runs in four innings this spring, will have to pass up less-heralded guys like Harris and Hatley who have been impressive so far during spring training. It should benefit Tuivailala, who has been pitching for just three years and has thrown only four games above Double-A, to get more extensive Triple-A experience.
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Socolovich, Petrick, Kiekhefer, and Cooney, all of whom were non-roster invitees, look to help make up the Memphis Redbirds’ pitching staff this year and possibly pitch well enough to earn a big-league call-up down the road.
Kiekhefer is a pitcher similar to Greenwood, as he’s a lefty reliever who can go multiple innings. His opportunities may be limited this coming season with so many of the aforementioned lefthanders ahead of him. Cooney, rated as the Cards’ 10th-best prospect by MLB.com, is a lefty starter who had decent success at Memphis last year and could have a chance at filling a big-league rotation vacancy some time later this season, though the Cardinals’ established depth guys, such as Martinez, Gonzales, Villanueva, Garcia, Lyons, and even Greenwood could make it difficult for him to find that opportunity, especially since he’s not on the 40-man roster.
Socolovich, who has 12 games total of big-league experience split between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago Cubs, was not scored upon in five spring outings this year and like Tuivailala, could have a chance to break through as a righthanded injury replacement in the bullpen later this season. Petrick, who got roughed up a bit during his brief spring opportunities, is in the same boat as Cooney, struggling to find an opportunity to break through in the rotation with so many already-established options ahead of him. Petrick, who split last season between Double-A and Triple-A, faces the possibility of beginning the season back in Double-A, and he’ll likely need at least another season at Memphis before he’s considered to fill a rotation spot even on a fill-in basis.