St. Louis Cardinals to Recall Mike Mayers for Sunday Spot Start
Righty Mike Mayers will make his major-league debut with a spot start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball.
In a bit of a surprising decision, the St. Louis Cardinals have decided to recall righthander Mike Mayers to serve as their spot starter for Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Mayers will be the first pitcher outside of the regular five-man starting rotation to make a start for the Cardinals this year, and he’ll make his big-league debut on the national stage that accompanies ESPN’s
Sunday Night Baseball.
The 24-year-old Mayers’ prospect stock was low heading into 2016, as he was coming off a 2015 season where he posted a 6.56 ERA over 10 startss at Double-A Springfield and was forced to undergo season-ending thoracic outlet surgery. He’s bounced back this year, though, as he started the year by posting a 2.30 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and .234 opponent batting average over nine starts at Double-A Springfield, then was promoted to Triple-A Memphis at the end of May. In nine starts there–including one spot start on May 16 before he was called up to Triple-A for good–Mayers has posted a 2.94 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and .238 opponent batting average.
In what’s not spectacular news for a bullpen that’s been strained by a four-game series against the San Diego Padres and a 16-inning game against the Dodgers on Friday, Mayers has thrown more than six innings just once at Memphis, going seven on June 30.
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He’s got an extra day of rest, though, as he was scratched from his scheduled start Saturday against the Iowa Cubs, so perhaps he’ll be able to provide the Cardinals with five or six solid innings.
While the Cardinals have a spot open on their 40-man roster after designating catcher Michael McKenry for assignment earlier this week, they’ll have to open up a spot on the 25-man roster, which will be no easy task considering that the subtraction will pretty much have to come from the pitching staff, with 13 pitchers currently on the roster.
The only two pitchers who’d seem to have a chance of getting optioned to Triple-A are Trevor Rosenthal (less likely) and Miguel Socolovich (more likely), both of whom pitched on Saturday night. Though Rosenthal has struggled to the tune of a 5.29 ERA and 1.95 WHIP this season, he’s now had two straight scoreless outings, and that means something when he’s getting paid $5.6 million this year.
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Socolovich has allowed just one hit in 3 2/3 big-league innings this year, all of which have come over the past three days. Unfortunately, the one hit that he did allow was a solo homer to San Diego’s Yangervis Solarte on Thursday. Since he pitched two innings on Saturday night, he’d seem to be the most likely candidate to go back to Memphis.