The St. Louis Cardinals continued their offseason roster reconstruction on Thursday morning, announcing that the contract of outfielderAnthony Garciahas been purchased from Triple-A Memphis, meaning that he has been added to the 40-man roster. The 23-year-old Garcia, who was originally a catcher, has played in the Cardinals’ system since being selected in the 18th round of the 2009 draft, and he’s a career .260/.350/.451 minor-league hitter.
Garcia spent most of 2015 with Double-A Springfield, where he hit .285/.400/.476 with 11 homers and 54 RBI in 288 at-bats. He got a cup of coffee at Triple-A Memphis near the end of the season, hitting .276/.344/.483 with two homers and 10 RBI over 58 at-bats. Garcia’s value showed most, however, when he hit .393 with five homers, 17 RBI, and a .964 slugging percentage in 30 at-bats for Team Puerto Rico in the 2015 Pan-Am Games this summer.
Over the past year, the Cardinals have adopted an interesting philosophy of adding veteran minor-leaguers who have already been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft and not been selected (Ed Easley,Dean Anna, andTy Kelly) to the 40-man roster during the offseason. Garcia, who has been in the Cardinals’ system for the past seven seasons and was eligible for the Rule 5 Draft last winter, continues this trend.
This strategy bucks the traditional philosophy in Major League Baseball, which has been to add highly-regarded prospects coming up on their first Rule 5 Draft to the 40-man during the offseason to avoid them being poached, then to add older players like Garcia whenever they’re actually needed on the 25-man major-league roster. The evolution of player development, where legitimate prospects rarely play the four or five minor-league seasons that would be needed for them to be Rule 5 eligible, as well as the Cardinals’ lack of reliance on outside free agents, are factors that may be contributing to this new development in 40-man roster management.
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While teams add new players to the 40-man all the time during the offseason, this move is interesting, especially because Garcia’s already gone through a Rule 5 Draft unpicked. Perhaps his Pan-Am Games performance made him more attractive to teams across baseball, but even so, the Cardinals already haveMatt Holliday,Randal Grichuk,Stephen Piscotty,Tommy Pham,Jon Jay, andPeter Bourjosas outfield options on their 40-man roster, withJason Heywardalso a possibility to return despite his pending free agency. The possibility of losing Heyward in free agency is almost certainly not a factor in the decision, but perhaps it’s a sign that the Cardinals could be trying to develop a trade market for a player like Jay, who hit a career-worst .210/.306/.257 in 2015 after a strong .303/.372/.378 season in 2014.
Following the removal 10 players from the 40-man this week (four who the Cardinals willingly removed, six who elected free agency) and the addition of Garcia, the Cards now have 33 players on their 40-man roster.
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