Matt Wieters has officially made the Cardinals’ roster as the backup to Yadier Molina, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wieters, who signed a minor league deal in February, will have his contract selected, and the Cardinals will designate left-hander Chasen Shreve for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
Meanwhile, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com tweets that outfielder Tyler O’Neill and right-hander Mike Mayers have both been informed they’ve made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster as well.
Wieters, 32, has been beset by injuries in recent seasons as his offensive output has slowly deteriorated. The once-vaunted prospect and three-time All-Star most notably had Tommy John surgery in 2014 and also underwent hamstring surgery last season. He’s also missed time due to an oblique injury in recent years, and over the past three seasons he’s compiled a pedestrian .235/.303/.376 batting line.
Even that modest output from Wieters is worlds better than the Cards received from their backup catchers in 2018, however. Francisco Pena totaled 142 plate appearances but mustered a bleak .203/.239/.271 slash, while the since-traded Carson Kelly looked overmatched in a minuscule sample of 42 PAs as he hit .114/.205/.114. Pena also struggled with both framing and throwing out runners in 2018, so Wieters should present a definitive upgrade, even if he’s no longer a premier player at his position.
Shreve, 28, will ultimately pitch just 14 2/3 innings in a Cardinals uniform. The southpaw came to St. Louis in what now looks to be a remarkably regrettable trade with the Yankees, as Luke Voit burst onto the scene in New York late in the 2018 campaign and batted .333/.405/.689 with 14 home runs in 148 PAs down the stretch.
While some regression for Voit is inevitable, Shreve’s time with the Cardinals all but certain to end with today’s DFA. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment even if he clears waivers. The Cardinals and Shreve had agreed to a $900K salary earlier this winter, avoiding arbitration, and the team will now at least save the majority of that sum with today’s move; Shreve will be owed 45 days of his salary as termination pay — a sum of about $218K. (The Cardinals, it should be noted, do still have 27-year-old reliever Giovanny Gallegos on the 40-man roster as part of their return for Voit.)
Over the past four seasons, Shreve has posted a solid 3.85 ERA and missed bats (10.3 K/9), but he’s also been far too prone to walks (4.7 BB/9) and home runs (1.8 HR/9) for either the Yankees or Cardinals to deem him a reliable bullpen option. Furthermore, he’s not a candidate for a more specialized role, as left-handed opponents have been even more successful against Shreve (.248/.335/.444) than right-handed opponents have been (.222/.316/.430).
With Shreve no longer in consideration for a bullpen role, it appears likely that Tyler Webb will open the season as the second left-hander behind Andrew Miller in manager Mike Shildt’s bullpen. Brett Cecil is expected to open the 2019 season on the injured list.
The out-of-options Mayers needed to either make the Opening Day roster or be designated for assignment. O’Neill has minor league options remaining but will make the club as a bench option behind Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader and Dexter Fowler for the time being. It’s not difficult to envision the slugger eventually playing his way into a larger role, though Fowler (as with Cecil) seems likely to get a chance at redemption due to his sizable contract.
One of the biggest rip offs ever. Shreve & Gallegos for Voit. Goldy 2.0
Sure, Jan.
I liked Voit but he wasn’t going to play 1B over Carpenter. He has a chance to play now but I’m hesitant to say he’ll sustain last season’s output. Would you rather have Voit than Goldschmidt? That’s silly. Plus Martinez can be a backup 1B also.
Voit may be great for the Yanks but (a) he wasn’t going to start over Carp and (b) he wasn’t going to hit behind Stanton, Sanchez, Judge, Torres and Andjuar in STL. I doubt his output would be the same without so much protection.
Protection is a baseball myth.
That’s funny.
The Cardinals and Mike Schildt specifically has said Martinez will not play 1st and they will instead use other options there.
At least you are funny. Even if you don’t mean to be.
Dude that’s just a wrong statement in every way! Voit had no path to playing time at 1B as a Cardinal. Carpenter was entrenched there at the time and nothing he did in his minor league career would indicate what he did in 161 PA in a glorified wiffle ball stadium will continue at anywhere near that pace. He had 0 trade value and projections have him at like 1.5-2 WAR this year. Gallegos looks like a better bullpen asset going forward than even Jordan Hicks. Shreve was a worthwhile gamble on a LHP with good peripherals and bad results. He was just out of options and didn’t pitch well enough this spring to warrant a roster spot.
Shreve was very consistent for the Yankees. He was either consistently good for an extended period or consistently bad. There didn’t seem to be a sustainable in between.
lol let’s pump the brakes a bit
This is good for the Cards. I am excited for the regular season to start.
Is Webb out of options?
No. He has one minor league option year left.
Not sure there’s such a huge difference between Webb and Shreve…I think I would’ve kept Webb in the minors and held onto Shreve for the depth.
It’s about the 40 man spot. Not options for the minors.
Apparently, the final bullpen spot is between Webb and Brebbia, who are both vulnerable because they have options.
Was it a numbers game with Shreve? I always thought he had potential.
Ithougt he had potential too, but he hasn’t pitched to it. His control has been awful. But neither Layne nor Webb have had particularly good Springs so maybe the Red Birds go shopping for another lefty.
Seems like a pretty solid backup.
I’m kind of shocked they DFA’d Shreve. Not surprised they found a way to keep Mayers and Wieters on the rosters though.
I just expected Cecil to be the lefty left out, not Shreve.
Cecil’s on the DL, so he isn’t taking a 40 man spot.
Cecil is going to open on the 10-day injured list, not the 60-day, so he is indeed taking a 40-man roster spot.
Welp, I’m an idiot. Should’ve DFA’d Cecil
Cecil will probably go to the 60 day IL per the Cardinals’ insiders.
That would free up a 40 man but you can only 60 day someone when the 40 is full I believe
Not sure you can DFA an injured player. Cecil, though, most likely will go the way of Jordan Walden, who spent nearly all of his Cardinals career on the DL until his contract ended.
They don’t need to DFA Cecil (at least not yet). They can just option Webb or Brebbia (whichever one makes the team) to AAA when Cecil is ready to be activated.
He does take a 40 man
Why are you surprised Jfactor? Shreve had a horrible spring and really wasn’t that great after the trade last year
Didn’t Shreve get rocked yesterday? Oh wait that was all spring! lol
Bowtie got mesmerized by those pinstripes and wanted to make a cheap deal for help in hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
You mean he did exactly what every other POBO/GM in baseball does?
Voit seems kinda flukeish but still great trade for yankees considering bird is always injured. Voit wouldve never got an extended opportunity with cardinals
Tyler Webb has not pitched that bad! Better than Shreve Shreve can’t locate his fastball
Voit was never going to make it in St Louis. I expect he will regress this year and be gone by July. Seriously hope I’m wrong but I don’t see him repeating his performance
Wieters > Knizer I guess.
For 2019 probably
Knizner needs to be playing every day to continue to work on things. He can’t do that in St. Louis, so the best place for him is AAA. If Yadi is out, he’s most likely going to pull more starts, not Wieters.
Although I think that should have happened with Kelley over Pena last year, so who knows if they would do that or not.
@ stan lee the manly;
You are correct.
Teams typically carry 2 catchers on the roster, and (usually) a young developing one in AAA that can be called up if one of the 2 catchers is injured. Knizner has been designated as the heir to Yadi.
GM Dayton Moore of the Royals made a great comment the other day. He said there are fewer quality Catchers in MLB then there are quality QB’s in the NFL. He is correct. Being a quality Catcher in MLB has little to do with (silly) pitch framing or BA, but that’s all media sites can track.
Knizner is a converted INF. He needs to learn more about carrying out the the duties of a Catcher. Fortunately he is in one of the best organizations to do that.
I wouldn’t mind if the Jays took a shot at Shreve. Lots of bullpen spots available at the moment and he could be the second lefty to compliment Mayza until Richard gets moved back.
Pena horrendously terrible at everything a catcher is asked to do. Wieters is a solid defender who managed around an overall league average batting line last year. I don’t even know or care why the Cards even bothered bringing Pena back to camp this year. I hope he does find another opportunity so they no longer feel the urge to bother rostering him at AAA over literally any other option inside or outside the organization. Good bye and good luck to Pena as he would seem to typify the futility of the backup catcher position during the Yadi era of virtually unrivaled bell answering. Einar Diaz and Tony Cruz say hello!
Well, they did resign Pena before Weiters fell into their laps. I’m not sure why they thought it was a good idea to bring him back at all, but at the time he at least wasn’t meant to be competing with someone like Weiters.
Uh….Wieters isn’t really a solid defender anymore. His framing stats for the last two seasons have been worse than Pena’s.