The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves in advance of tonight’s deadline to set 40-man rosters before next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Lefty Genesis Cabrera, right-hander Ryan Helsley, outfielder Lane Thomas and infielder Ramon Urias have all had their contracts selected and been added to the 40-man roster. In order to clear the two spots necessary to accommodate that quartet, the Cards designated right-handers Conner Greene and Derian Gonzalez for assignment.
Greene, 23, was acquired alongside Dominic Leone in last offseason’s Randal Grichuk trade. The former seventh-round pick’s longstanding control issues didn’t improve in his lone season with the Cards, as Greene walked 63 batters in 88 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. As for the 23-year-old Gonzalez, he pitched to a 3.51 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 4.1 BB.9 across three levels in 33 1/3 innings during an injury-shortened 2018 season.
The 22-year-old Cabrera was one of the key pieces acquired in the summer trade sending Tommy Pham to the Rays and was a lock to be added to the roster today, though he could still be a year away from contributing in the big leagues.. Helsley, 24, is a former fifth-round pick who’s posted impressive strikeout totals in the upper minors and likely isn’t far from a look in the Majors. Thomas, too, is an upper-minors piece who could emerge as an option in the relatively near future after hitting .264/.333/.489 between Double-A and Triple-A this past season. Urias, 24, hit .300/.356/.516 in 90 games between Double-A and Triple-A this past season.
I remember so many Jays fans upset when greene was traded, now we can have him back for nothing
Although I doubt we bring him back
I didn’t like his inclusion in the trade, but man did they ever steal Grichuk from them.
Steal Grichuk? Lmmfao. It’s clear that you don’t know anything about the Cardinals.
Check both the trades with Tor. Grichuk for Leone and Greene. They are now DFA Greene, probably will lose him, and Leone missed half the season. Grichuk WAR was comparable to Ozuna with a better wRC+. Cardinals also traded Diaz to Toronto in a separate trade. Cardinals got JB Woodman who they released halfway through the season from A+. Toronto flipped Diaz now to Houston for a major league ready arm.
Both trades did us no favors, but we still have Leone and the players who filled grichuks and diaz’s spots played better than them. Not a ton better but better. I’m hoping the cards protect schrock and trade junior Fernandez. Schrock had a down year at memphis, but he had been pretty good before last year.
They won’t lose Greene. No one will take him and keep him on the Big league roster all year. Learn the game.
The don’t have to keep him on their roster all year. I think he has options left. They just have to claim him through the DFA and can option him.
Ya I don’t follow them that closely but the Jays got a pretty good outfielder for a bust prospect and a reliever who fell off a cliff and battled injury. They definitely stole Grich
Very few of John Mozeliak’s trades or free agent acquisitions have helped the Cardinals. He’s ALWAYS on the Losing Side. Even poor now at his speciality…..Low Hanging Fruit.
‘Learn the game’ he says. Lol
Wow you got a league average at best outfielder just prior to arbitration that we have 10 of at any given time. Cards sure got hosed.
Ozuna hit for 35 more points on the batting average than Grichuk and hit 27 more RBIs than him as well. He also had 24 points better of OBP, struck out 12 more times in 26 LESS games, and had a negative dWAR where Ozuna had a positive one even with his arm. I get that some fans were disappointed with him not hitting like he did in 2017, but he is so much better than Randal Grichuk that it’s laughable. Also, he didn’t cry when he left the Cardinals about never knowing if he would be playing the following day. Yeah, well that’s what happens when you strike out all the time and have to be sent down to the minors for a month every year to figure yourself out.
Grichuk was better at the plate last year than Ozuna and wasn’t a negative defender.
Yeah, the Jays stole a guy who batted .208 through the first half of the season and only ended up hitting .245 on the year. Almost like when the Jays stole Rasmus from the Cards. Oh, wait….
AA of the Braves will sign Greene. He loved that guy when he was gm if the Jays.
Yes he did. But so do the holdover assistant GMs in Toronto. It’s possible they pick him up (like they did Deck McGuire), and give him a look at closing in the minors.
Nah, that won’t happen. Greene was the best pitcher left in the Jays farm after Anthopolous emptied it out prior to quitting and f–king off to Los Angeles. He didn’t want to stick around to deal with the consequences.
When you know you’re leaving at the end of the season your trade deadline essentially becomes a free roll.
Question. Can a team demote guys, like the Cards Fowler, Gregerson or Cecil, and expose them by dropping them from the 40-man roster?
Yes you could but would still be liable to their contract. That is why they are still on the roster.
Got that but if they are going to separate themselves of them anyway maybe they could eat much of their contracts and work out a deal and protect 3 other promising kids.
I definitely like the thinking, but I believe at least one reason they don’t do that is because if they are wanting to trade them it would hurt their value. If a team sees that Fowler had a bad year, was hurt, AND the Cards tried to take him off of their 40 man, then they would force the birds to eat more of his salary than if they hadn’t tried getting him off of the 40 man. Also, if they WOULD get have him for next year, all that does is cause even more locker room problems. I really wish that they could just do that though. Fowler and Cecil would definitely get the boot from me. With Gregerson, I would hold on to with hopes that he will be healthy and help the bp.
Cardinals been getting hosed by the Jays lol. The grichuk one hurts. Diaz I would have traded for a bag of peanuts.
So we are all just gonna keep ignoring that Lane Thomas, mentioned above, came from the Jays as well?
That was a different deal but I know what you mean.
None of the guys we traded were better than the replacements we had in house to take their spots. Toronto really stuck it to us with a whopping 3.5 WAR acquired over almost 1000 PA between Grich and Diaz. Cards literally crank out 2-2.5 WAR players at every position.
Don’t forget that Grichuk also had to be sent down to the minors again because he couldn’t figure out his swing. I swear the amount of people that love Grichuk is absolutely ridiculous. He even had a negative dWAR even though I’ve heard on numerous occasions that he is a defensive god ala Jim Edmonds
Grichuk was injured in spring and struggled out of the gate. He was sent done to rehab and he cane up and was a great bat for the majority of the year. His numbers were atrocious after returning from two separate injuries and he still ended up with well above average numbers. And honestly, if a defensive stat shows you he’s a bad fielder, you are looking at an unreliable stat.
Does this leave the Cards at exactly 40 men?
Right now, yes. I’m sure there are more moves coming. Still a lot of dead weight.
I’m really curious. Who would you take off of the 40 man? Not being sarcastic. I honestly am curious. I’ve seen people suggest Gregerson and even Garcia (aka the man more clumsy than Lonnie Smith). The only one I personally would take off is Gallegos, but that’s just me. Also I would add Knizner and trade Carson Kelly.
To all those saying that the Blue Jays have “hosed” the Cards in recent trades, do those same people remember the Colby Rasmus trade? If I remember correctly, it was that trade in which the birds added Mark “Scrabble” Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, and Edwin Jackson, aka 3 pitchers who seriously helped the birds win the World Series that year. Also, Tyler O’Neill is every bit as good as Grichuk, so it isn’t like they lost anything. Leone will be back next year and, if healthy, will hopefully return to 2017 form.