St. Louis Cardinals Call Up Travis Tartamella, DFA Xavier Scruggs

With starting catcher Yadier Molina out for at least a week and in doubt for the rest of the season after suffering a partially torn thumb ligament on Sunday against the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals felt compelled to boost their catching depth by purchasing the contract of catcher Travis Tartamella from the minor leagues. It’s a move that few could have expected going into the season, as Tartamella was, at best, fifth on the Cardinals’ organizational catching depth chart.

The 27-year-old Tartamella has very closely fit the definition of an “organizational catcher” over the past few years, primarily being relegated to third-string catching duties, frequently spending time on the minor-league disabled list, and relying on bullpen sessions to keep him fresh in case he’s needed. For the first time since 2009, the year he was drafted, Tartamella didn’t spend time at multiple minor-league levels. He was stationed at Triple-A Memphis as the third-stringer behind Ed Easley and Cody Stanley, though as Easley spent about a month in the majors and Stanley dealt with minor injuries, Tartamella did get a bit more playing time at Memphis than originally anticipated.

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Tartamella played in 40 games, collecting 118 at-bats and hitting .203/.236/.246 with no homers and nine RBI. With those numbers, it’s a bit surprising that Tartamella got the call over Double-A catcher Mike Ohlman, who is already on the 40-man roster and hit .273/.356/.418 with 12 homers and 69 RBI this year for Springfield. However, the word on Tartamella is that he’s more polished defensively, and with the decision coming down to two catchers who haven’t played in games for two weeks, it’s probably a more sensible move to go with the one who calls the better game.

It’s also worth noting that this move wouldn’t have had to occur if catcher Cody Stanley hadn’t been suspended 80 games last weekend for failing a steroid test. With all due respect to veteran backup Tony Cruz, Stanley seemed to be the Cardinals’ most talented backup behind Molina, and at least from an offensive standpoint, the lefthanded hitter would have been better equipped to temporarily take on the starting role. Instead, with Stanley having cost himself the chance to do so, the Cardinals will be forced to hand the reigns over to Cruz, who is hitting .173 with a .425 OPS this season and is a career .215/.259/.293 hitter, with his offensive numbers having decreased rather significantly in each of his big-league seasons. Along with Tartamella, the Cardinals have Ed Easley to back up Cruz. Easley, a 29-year-old who’s been a minor-league journeyman up until this season, is 0-for-2 as a big-league hitter and has played in just two games.

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Though Stanley impressed briefly as a big-leaguer, going 4-for-10 at the plate, this sequence of events is a bad look for GM John Mozeliak and staff. This is the third straight year that Molina has gone down with an injury down the stretch, and it’s also the third straight year that Cruz has been pressed into the position of replacing the probable future Hall-of-Famer (though veteran A.J. Pierzynski was brought in to bail him out last season after Cruz sunk rather than swam with his opportunity). Mozeliak had initially talked about upgrading the backup catcher position this offseason, but later backed off that goal and decided to go with Cruz and a host of unproven minor-leaguers as the insurance policies behind Molina.

In order to accommodate Tartamella on the 40-man roster, first baseman Xavier Scruggs was designated for assignment. The 27-year-old Scruggs is considered to have impressive power, though he didn’t show that in any of his big-league stints over the past year, going a collective 14-for-57 (.246) with three doubles and no homers. Scruggs started off hot for the Cardinals after being recalled in mid-June, hitting .391 with six RBI in 23 at-bats from June 19 until the end of the month. As he made less contact, though, his lack of power became more of an issue, and he fell behind Dan Johnson on the first base depth chart by mid-July. With Matt Adams, Stephen Piscotty, Mark Reynolds, and Brandon Moss now ahead of him on the first base depth chart, Scruggs had become expendable, and frankly he was lucky to last this long since Stanley’s suspension gave the Cardinals a 40-man spot to activate pitcher Matt Belisle from the 60-day disabled list earlier this month.

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