St. Louis Cardinals Option LHP Tim Cooney to Triple-A Memphis
With the St. Louis Cardinals needing to create room for reliever Steve Cishek, who was acquired yesterday from the Miami Marlins, on the 25-man roster, the club optioned lefthanded starting pitcher Tim Cooney to Triple-A Memphis. Cooney’s demotion will presumably set up fellow lefty Jaime Garcia to return from the disabled list for the next turn through the rotation. (Last time this situation played out in early July, Garcia ended up having a setback and staying on the DL, so we’ll see if it works out this time).
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The 24-year-old Cooney made his major-league debut in a one-off performance this April, struggling mightily while giving up three earned runs on seven hits and a walk through 2.1 innings. But after going down to Memphis and refining his repertoire a bit more, Cooney came back more polished and confident on July 2 and proceeded to deliver five solid starts for the Cardinals. Though he failed to receive a decision in the first four starts of his second stint, Cooney showed much improvement, going at least five innings in every start while posting a 2.76 ERA over those five appearances. He finally got his first big-league decision last night, getting a win in the sixth start of his career.
With Cishek now on the roster, the Cardinals will now have the luxury of working with an eight-man bullpen for the next four days. It’s unknown whether they’ll stick with eight relievers, as they have for much of 2015, or a five-man bench when Garcia returns. With that said, recently-recalled prospect Stephen Piscotty has been out of the starting lineup for three straight days, so he would seem to be a prime candidate for demotion upon Garcia’s return.