The Cardinals have announced that center fielder Dexter Fowler will go on the 10-day DL with a wrist strain. His spot on the active roster will be taken by outfield prospect Harrison Bader, who earns his first MLB promotion, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggested was in the works.
It’s not known at present how serious an injury it is for Fowler, who as Goold notes has dealt with a few maladies of late. The veteran is obviously a key cog for St. Louis; his loss comes as the club weighs its trade deadline options with a four-game deficit in the NL Central.
Prior indications were that Bader would only be recalled if he would be presented with a relatively extended opportunity for playing time. Just how long of a run he’ll receive will surely depend upon Fowler’s progress and Bader’s play. The new addition could conceivably claim playing time even once Fowler returns, though the Cards will surely continue to allow Tommy Pham to receive regular time and also have other options including Randal Grichuk, Jose Martinez, and Stephen Piscotty (who’s working back from the DL at present).
Entering the year, Bader was seen as a consensus top-ten organizational prospect. He stands at sixth among Cards’ youngsters in MLB.com’s most recent ranking. A former third-round draft pick, Bader has turned in a quality effort at Triple-A thus far, slashing.297/.354/.517 with 19 home runs.
To open a 40-man spot, the Cards have released outfielder Chad Huffman. The 32-year-old had received a brief MLB call-up earlier this year but spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he posted a .247/.386/.437 batting line in 215 trips to the plate.
Really excited to see Harrison bader get his chance and to see what he can do.
When was bader added to the 40 man? When they cut fryer? I must’ve missed it
they released Huffman today to make room.
Nader was today. Fryer was yesterday I think.
Bader *. Sry
Harrison Bader will be added to 40-man roster prior to tonight’s game. A spot opened up on the roster when Marco Gonzalez was traded. Tyler O’Niell did not have to be added to the 40-man since he is not required due to length of service. An interesting side note: the likelihood of Bader being traded by the trade deadline diminishes with this promotion since one of his option years will be exercised with the promotion. (Clubs like having all 3 year options available when trading for minor leaguers.)
i dont think thats really a big deal.
that was a great pick by the Cardinals in round 3 a couple years back, with a relatively low bonus. obviously he strikes out alot, and his success rate on steals has continued to be poor. will be interesting to see how he does.
That doesn’t really mean much if a team thinks he’s ready to contribute now, which he basically is. And if he’s somehow in the majors for the rest of the year, he doesn’t lose an option anyway.
I highly doubt with both Fowler AND Piscotty on the DL, that Bader would be on the MLB roster the remainder of the season. I suppose they could get rid of Martinez, but they seem to like him in the dugout/clubhouse/whatnot. And he’s not a pit of failure like some bench guys can be.
bout time for bader time
It’s time. It’s time. It’s Bader time.
I still don’t understand why the Cubs made such little effort to keep the player they themselves identified as the guy who made the team “go”.
If it was to give the rest of the NL Central a chance, thanks, but…it didn’t really make sense for the Cubs.
Because giving Dexter that contract would prevent them from retaining some of their younger talent in the future.
Thats BS… Granted Dexter proly wanted 5 years.. But Theo could have gotten him for less by having a front loaded deal..
Bryant is the player the Cubs are gonna have to truly pony up for.. When they manipulated his service time for an extra year they taught a Boras client and early business lesson.. Bryant will deservedly want someone to pay for that. So id expect no team friendly deals to buyout arbitration years and most certainly be testing open market come FA time.
But front loading the deal does not make it a good deal. 5 years for a player coming off career year who is always on the DL and 31 whose game in large part is on his legs is not a good deal front loading or not. Theo knows this. We all know it but you.
Ha! Bryant will sign with either Boston or the Yankees. He turned down an extension last season. He’s all but gone from the Cubs
The arrogant tone of your comment makes it hard not to reciprocate. I’ll take the high road and ask you to simply justify your opinion. Can you?
Because he’s a 31 year old career average player coming off a career year and expecting to paid far more money than his future production will be worth.
If you go by fWAR Fowler was maybe worth his contract this year (bWAR says he’s been much worse), but that’s going to be awful in years 4 & 5
Fowler’s contract took care of that. Jon Jay has been better than Fowler.
the cubs are paying fowler, under the table, to sabotage the cardinals.
Interesting, hope he gets to play every day till Fowler or Piscotty come back. I’m so excited because he played very well when I seen him play in Springfield
I hope I’m wrong but I’m not near as excited as most on this. Bader’s K% is crazy high. I understand the upside in the rest of his game, but he’s got to get better there. If he does well though it’s only going to make the Fowler signing look even worse.
His K% and BB% are both really similar to that of Javy Baez or Yasmani Grandal, both of whom are pretty solid offensive players.
Might as well be the Memphis cardinals playing the Rockies today.
lol right
Ha at least they are 30 games over .500
“Bader has turned in a quality effort at Triple-A thus far, slashing.297/.354/.517 with 19 home runs.”
Quality-effort? Jeeze, undermining his performance with this statement in my opinion. All prospect rankings are severely overlooking Harrison. How many comparable prospects are in the Top 100 and upper minors that are replicating or beating his slash line? This kid is going to be very good. I’m glad he is finally getting his chance.
I don’t see the problem in saying someone is “quality,” unless they aren’t. It seems like nitpicking to me.
As far as how many top 100 prospects are beating or similar to that line, there’s several. That’s not to say it’s not impressive, because it definitely is, but there’s a reason why they’re top prospects, and it’s usually not because of their impressive .086/.117/.178 line.
Cards are gonna be really good in 2 years
Bader is basically Grichuk 3.0 (2.0 being DeJong)
I’ll reserve judgement on Bader until he’s had the opportunity to play every day. However, I will say that Grichuk couldn’t even hold DeJong’s jock strap- guy is a classic example of the AAAA player Motie loves.
Fowler has been a key cog in this team being so mediocre. Okay hitting and terrible defense have not really done anything to help this team.
Ah so excited to see him! Can’t wait to see what he’s capable of
This season has been a wash for both Fowler and Piscotty. Injuries have taken a toll. Next year I expect both to have bounce back years next season
The Cardinals should get rid of Mabry. He’s a terrible hitting coach. The Cardinals offense has fallen every season since he’s been here, especially this year. Two examples, Holliday and Adams. Holliday is back to hitting over .300 and Adams has been on a tear since going to Atlanta.
Holliday is batting .238
Haha maybe he was rounding up. He’s also the one that said Kris Bryant is “all but gone” from the Cubs.