The Cardinals have claimed left-hander Ricardo Sanchez off waivers from the Mariners, as announced by both teams. Infielder Ramon Urias was designated for assignment by St. Louis to create a 40-man roster spot for Sanchez.
Sanchez hit the waiver wire last week, when he was DFA’ed by the Mariners to make roster room for Yoshihisa Hirano. The southpaw has spent four of his six pro seasons in the Braves organization, sandwiched between his debut season with the Angels’ rookie ball affiliate in 2014 and a 2019 season spent with the Mariners’ Double-A club.
Sanchez has an unimpressive 4.52 ERA over 517 1/3 innings, though with some solid peripheral numbers (8.2 K/9, 2.25 K/BB rate) and youth still on his side, as he doesn’t turn 23 until April. There isn’t much risk for the Cards in seeing what Sanchez can do in a new system, as at worst, he can be a depth rotation in the minors. Sanchez has started 106 of 111 career games, so a turn to relief pitching could also be explored if Sanchez ultimately doesn’t develop as a starter.
Urias, a longtime veteran of the Mexican League, has spent the last two seasons in the Cardinals’ farm system. The bulk of that time has been spent at the Triple-A level, where the 25-year-old hit .262/.347/.426 with 14 homers over 524 plate appearances. Urias has played mostly as a second baseman while in the Cards’ organization, though he also has quite a bit of experience as a third baseman, and seen some time as a shortstop, first baseman, and left fielder over his nine professional seasons.
Seems like a good idea – young lefty that has a pretty good track record to help fill some pitching in AA and AAA for now.
Looks like good upside.
@Payne Train
I concur. Depth wise it’s a good move.
Potential value wise, Johnny Scoutreport here (rest in peace credibility) gives him a 30/45.
Organizational depth with stormclouds over “5th Starter.”
IMO.
The kid has elite stuff. But something is missing where he can’t put it all together…. he also seems to struggle keeping his weight in the appropriate zone. One min he’s too skinny, next he’s too fat. Go figure
Elite is a stretch. Fastball around 92 with a pretty good changeup ain’t elite. They’re average and maybe slightly above average, which is good to have, but no where near elite.
Hopefully they can trade urias, his minors numbers are good
In other words a 24 year old minor league pitcher for the possible loss of a 25 year old infielder.They have decent infield depth but Urias has been one of their best.
22 y/o pitcher
Cards making big moves!
Everyone has to make depth moves
You and every Cardinals fan say this about every p.o s. the Cards sign.
Annnndddd yet we still get somewhere around 88- 97 wins every season, consistently Make playoff runs, and win championships.
Yea I can live with that. Thanks for your input though.
Lol Payne Train… the jealousy reeks with this guy…sorry but the cardinals success speaks for itself
Heard he plays Dirty.
Finally a move that will put the Cardinals over the top!
RedFeather……unfortunately, this is the only thing Cardinals fans are accustom to during the off season or at the mid year trading deadline. Picking up Designated for assignment players or signing aging former stars for massive amounts of money and years. Which ties up their payroll. When an actual young star becomes available, (Arenaldo), the Cards have their payroll money already tied up on washed up players and Discarded players.
You know getting accustomed to no losing or tanking seasons, just went to the NLCS, won a World Series last decade and bunch of playoff games. Why don’t you ask Marlins fans
Asdfgh….. That’s a valid point on last seasons players. Tommy Edmon jump started the Cardinals when Carpenter was out for injuries and time off to practice his hitting in Jupiter, for a month. Finally, in the NLCS, Carpenter and Fowler were benched.
I’m still waiting for the Big Announcement of the 5 year $50M deal with Harrison Bourjos
Amen!
Those of you complaining about this move are kinda dumb. No matter where you are as an organization, taking a young former top prospect in the hopes that he rebounds and turns into something worth anything is always smart. The sad thing here is rebuilding teams like the marlins and orioles really missed a no brainer decision.
Yep, typical of people to troll the Cardinals for anything . I’m actually surprised that there isn’t more negative comments on here yet from people who don’t understand depth moves for the minor league teams.
Common sense not so common
Seriously are you that dumb as to think we aren’t kidding. The point was that they didn’t do much of anything to improve the club this year.
My comment wasn’t about you and red feathers . It was just a general statement about how everyone gets on the message boards to complain about anything that the Cardinals do or don’t do.
Just because you make a bad joke doesn’t mean this isn’t a good move for an organization. Uneducated fans like yourself get mad when their team doesn’t spend $100m+ on every move which is probably why you’re so miserable all the time.
Just having some fun with it.
Yea ok lol..nice save cayman97…I do think you are that dumb
Your idea of fun is complaining on a chat board? Pretty sad man.
Nothing wrong with another lefty plus just a depth move.Offense still sucks though! Where are you Arenado?
Cards81 is an ill informed idiot.