The Cardinals have optioned outfielder Randal Grichuk to Class-A Advanced so that he can put in extensive work on his pitch-recognition, GM John Mozeliak tells David Solomon of KTRS 550 AM (Twitter link). Per a team press release, the Cardinals have also activated outfielder Jose Martinez from the disabled list.
[Related: Updated St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
The move comes as somewhat of a surprise, but Grichuk’s struggles at the plate recently have been pronounced; he’s hitting just .222/.276/.377 this season and has fanned in 30 percent of his plate appearances. The month of May, in particular, has been a rough one for the 25-year-old, as evidence by a .202/.253/.333 triple slash.
Strikeouts have long been an issue for Grichuk, though despite his penchant for whiffs he was a productive member of the Cardinals’ lineup in 2015-16. Over the course of those two seasons, Grichuk appeared to have solidified himself as a regular in the St. Louis outfield, hitting a combined .255/.306/.508 with 41 homers through 828 plate appearances. He also turned in quality defensive work in both center field and left field in addition to above-average contributions on the basepaths.
Grichuk’s demotion likely means more playing time for hot-hitting Tommy Pham, who has forced himself into the team’s outfield mix with a brilliant .333/.410/.621 batting line and five homers through 78 plate appearances since being recalled from Triple-A. Dexter Fowler, of course, will continue to serve as the primary center fielder, with Stephen Piscotty handling right field duties.
Grichuk’s production in the minors will likely determine the length of his stay (barring other injuries in the Majors), but it doesn’t seem likely to impact his long-term control. He needs just 67 more days of big league service time to reach three full years of Major League service, which would put him on track to qualify for free agency following the 2020 season. While it’s possible that he does spend a fair chunk of time in the minors, it’d be a surprise to see him spend enough time there to delay his free agency by a year. The Cardinals made a somewhat similar move early last June in optioning Kolten Wong to Triple-A — a stay that lasted only a couple of weeks.
Grichuk is a good athlete but always thought he needed more discipline at the plate.
Wow, but kind of good idea? Wish Oakland would option their entire team to the minors to get work on defense.
Class-A advanced? Bold. Seems more often a move for pitchers, not batters. Good luck to RG, though this must be frustrating.
Maybe because its an hour away. In an emergency he could make it back to st louis in a pinch.
Only if you’re moving faster than the speed of sound. High-A is in Palm Beach, FL.
If proximity was a concern, they have 3 teams within a 4 hour radius of St. Louis…Memphis, TN (AAA, ~4 hours), Springfield, MO (AA, ~3 hours), and Peoria, IL (A-, ~2.5 hours).
I apologize for mistake. I was thinking Springfield. And I imagine they fly
No they don’t fly. Even Triple A takes the bus
Something is rotten in Denmark!?!? The coaching at the major league club has to depend on minor league coaches to fix their major league players bad habits??? Why not just demote the current Cardinals major league coaches to the minors and promote the minor league Coaches and managers that CAN help the major league Cardinals players????? It’s getting embarrassing watching a Cardinal team that has totally forgotten basic fundamentals since, our should be manager, Oquendo left
Meh. Grichuk is terrible at recognizing pitches. The Major Leagues is not the place to work on your problems. It’s a fine move. But at this point, Grichuk is who he is, I’d be shocked if he ever improved his plate discipline much.
Talented guy, was killing my fantasy team.
I think your team has way more issues if you were relying on Randal Grichuk.
Lol, you are not paid to think.
Well explain why you had Grichuk in your lineup then? He’s not even worthy of a bench role in a 12 person league lol
Uh. Yeah you are right I think.
If you play in something as shallow as a 12 team lol
Why was he on there in first place
I dropped grichuk about 4 weeks ago and nobody has picked him up from the bin since. You have to keep up to date. I’m in a 12 team keeper $100 buy in HH league.
His slash line n May is only slightly worse than Fowler’s.
Roller is OPSing .831 in May so idk what your talking about.
A .202/.253/.333 slash line is much worse than .219/.338/.453 (the difference between a 54 wRC+ and a 108).
Yeah, Fowler hasn’t been good, but Grichuk has been unplayable.
“Unplayable”? Nah dude, nah. Ever seen the slash lines of Rajai Davis, Stephen Vogt, Adam Rosales
pitch recognition in class A? doesn’t that level have the least pitch diversity?
Extended spring training is down there. All of the cardinals instructors are still there
Ok, instructors are there. How about level of competition to work on his issues?
Not at all.
Class A is mainly for college draftees, and other signees around the 20-22 area. Many pitchers down there are taught how to truly harness an off speed pitch. There are plenty of guys down there who are just Trevor Bauering it; throwing 9 different pitches to see what sticks.
Mainly it’s for Grichuk to see and understand what pitches are good, and which ones are bad. And it differentiate between say a good change and a bad change.
Very few pitchers in high A are gonna have a good change up. Change up development and the ability to control it (and other secondaries) come later for most pitchers.
Isn’t “trevor bauering it” just being an overall d-bag
Why are you calling him a d-bag?
He’s just an arrogant guy. He also got himself traded from Arizona because he wouldn’t listen to their coaches/front office.
With all due respect, there’s a lot of ways to get traded out of AZ that are questionable.
Overrated player.
If an article is written about Randall Grichuk without mentioning he was drafted directly before Mike Trout, does the article actually exist?
They were drafted by the same team however, so it was probably just alphabetical preference, honestly.
he needs to read the pitchers manual on how to get himself out;
1) in the dirt away
2) anything cutting away
3) fastball up
He needs to call up Justin Smoak and see whatever he did to help him lay off pitches this season
Oakland’s desperation for a outfielder that can catch a ball makes them the perfect trading partner. Not sure what Card’s needs are but the A’s have lots of good arms in the bullpen available.
Giants need to look into acquiring Grichuk. There’s no way the Cards have given up on him, but they have traded young center fielders during contending seasons in the past (Rasmus). Giants need a solid defender in center and they also need some power in the outfield.
The Giants need another glove-only guy with some supposed pop in their outfield like they need a third shoe.
Now wait a minute!?!? Our major league coaches aren’t good enough to straighten out the Cardinals major leaguer’s bad habits?!?! So, the major league players are sent to minor league so their minor league coaches can correct their bad habits?!?! Since, the Cardinals should be Manager, Oquendo took a position in the minors, the Major League Cardinals have totally forgotten the basic fundamentals the players were taught all of their lives!!!! Why not just demote the major league coaches and manager to the minors and elevate the coaches and manager that can correct bad habits at the major league level?!?! I’m really starting to feel embarrassed for the Cardinal Players. They have no leadership, coaching or administrative guidance.
The major league level isn’t exactly the best place for struggling players like Grichuk to make adjustments.
Oquendo is currently coaching in Florida now though so hopefully he can work his magic on grichuk.
The major league coaches aren’t there to develop players, they’re there to win games. No coach is going to fix Grichuks pitch recognition issues.
I agree. My point is…. why then do the major league players forget the fundamentals they’ve elevated themselves with in the minors to the majors.
Somewhere the Leadership has gotten lost on this team on and off the field! I have always been behind the Front Office and the Manager but the mistakes on the field I’m sorry come down to the Manager! I don’t care if that player makes 10 mil a year if he makes a boneheaded play then his ass sits for it! Same goes for the pitching if Brockton and some of the others can’t get outs then demote their ass and bring up the minors at least they can’t do any worse! This team has trouble making the correct plays, running bases and hitting! Hell not much else can go wrong and even when they went 18/9 they weren’t exactly playing the Yankees and Dodgers!! Sorry so long but damn SOMETHING Has TO GIVE!
It’s baseball, man. Every team has good and bad stretches. The Cardinals aren’t as good as you thought when they won 12 out of 15, and they’re not as bad as you think now.
I understand what you are saying but there are not gonna be very many good stretches with this group and their fundamentals! We are wasting good starting pitching! I feel pretty certain that if something doesn’t change soon Dewitt will make it happen! And I don’t even want to hear about he won’t spend any money as that is BS! Unfortunately even Mike Shannon called them out during yesterday’s game!! Just saying!
boom, all the way down to palm beach
The Cardinals are going nowhere fast.
Is it just coincidence that the Cards caught fire when Sierra came up and have gone in the tank since he went down? Any thoughts out there?