St. Louis Cardinals Send Down Luke Weaver, Mitch Harris
The Cardinals sent down two players with major-league experience on Saturday.
The St. Louis Cardinals trimmed two more pitchers from their spring training roster on Saturday morning, optioning righthander Luke Weaver to Triple-A Memphis and reassigning righty reliever Mitch Harris to minor-league camp.
It’s a relatively early assignment to the minors for Weaver, who was a part of the Cardinals’ rotation for much of the last two months of the season. But after a relatively poor showing this spring (12.60 ERA and 3.00 WHIP in five innings), Weaver doesn’t have a chance to make the Opening Day roster, so the Cardinals will instead give him a chance to get regular starts in minor-league camp.
He’ll have to fend off competition from John Gant, Mike Mayers, and perhaps major-leaguers like Tyler Lyons and Trevor Rosenthal, but Weaver could be the first man up if the Cardinals suffer a rotation injury this season.
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He definitely showed that he’s capable of succeeding in the majors last year, posting a 3.21 ERA with a 1.34 WHIP over his first eight big-league starts before burning out over his final two appearances and finishing the season with a 5.70 ERA and 1.60 WHIP.
Harris, who’s recovering from the revolutionary new elbow ligament repair surgery that team physician Dr. George Paletta has popularized, was not originally slated to attend big-league camp this spring after being outrighted off the 40-man roster following last season. He was invited to camp, however, after the Cardinals suffered a rash of pitching injuries and a suspension to lefty Corey Littrell.
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Harris pitched in two games for the Cardinals this spring, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk in a one-inning appearance on March 7, but then coming back and throwing a scoreless inning while allowing a hit and a walk on March 13. He’s likely to join Weaver at Triple-A Memphis to start the season, and considering that the Cardinals don’t have a ton of righthanded depth, he might be a candidate for a call-up later this season if he pitches well in the minors.