St. Louis Cardinals Release List of Non-Roster Invitees for 2015 Spring Training
The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Wednesday that 18 non-roster players will join the team for major-league spring training in Jupiter, Florida.
Righthanded pitchers Mitch Harris, Marcus Hatley, Mike Mayers, Zach Petrick, Miguel Socolovich, and Carlos Villanueva, lefthanded pitchers Tim Cooney, John Gast, and Dean Kiekhefer, catchers Steve Bean, Carson Kelly, Alberto Rosario, and Travis Tartamella, infielders Scott Moore, Breyvic Valera, and Jacob Wilson, and outfielders Rafael Ortega and Stephen Piscotty will supplement the Cardinals’ 40-man roster when full workouts kick off on February 25 (with pitchers and catchers officially reporting on February 19).
Villanueva, a veteran of nine straight big-league seasons, could contend for a spot in the Cardinals’ bullpen. He gives the club another righthanded option for the ‘pen, where Jordan Walden, Seth Maness, Trevor Rosenthal, and Matt Belisle are the only reliable choices unless Carlos Martinez loses the battle for the fifth starter spot to Marco Gonzales.
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However, it’s not necessarily likely that he’ll stick around if he doesn’t make the team out of spring training. A provision in the MLB CBA mandates that veterans who end the season on a big-league roster, as Villanueva did with the Chicago Cubs, receive advance notice of if they’re going to make the club or not. If they’re not on the Opening Day roster, they are given an opt out, and if they choose to stay with the organization, they must be paid a $100,000 retention bonus. Considering that Villanueva hasn’t pitched regularly in the minors since 2006, he’ll probably do everything in his power to avoid having to go to Triple-A this season.
Other than for the few guys who are seriously competing for a spot on the Opening Day roster, a spring training invitation doesn’t equate to too much for a Cardinals prospect. Due to the fact that the team shares a facility with their minor-league camp and plays plenty of road games that are several hours away from Jupiter, many players end up getting called up to play in big-league spring games, even though they aren’t on the official roster. For this reason, the Cardinals’ formal spring training roster includes less players than most other teams’, although it’s quite possible that they’ll actually utilize more players in spring training than the majority of the teams in the majors.
Next: Marco Gonzales Tops Baseball America's Cardinals Prospect Rankings