SEPTEMBER 23: The Cardinals announced Thursday that Ponce de Leon has been granted his release. He’ll be free to explore opportunities elsewhere.
SEPTEMBER 22: Ponce de Leon cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis, the Cardinals announced Wednesday. He’ll remain in the organization but is no longer on the 40-man roster.
SEPTEMBER 20: The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Daniel Ponce de Leon for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to lefty Brandon Waddell, who has been recalled from Triple-A Memphis.
Ponce de Leon, 29, got out to a nice start in his big league career with the Cards. From 2018-19, the former ninth-round pick tallied 81 2/3 frames with a 3.31 ERA, a solid 24.8 percent strikeout rate and an 11.6 percent walk rate. The free passes were too frequent, of course, but Ponce de Leon generally functioned as a useful swingman in St. Louis over those two seasons. He appeared in 24 games and split his time evenly between the bullpen and the rotation: a dozen appearances each. He had a bit more success out of the ’pen, but Ponce de Leon was quite solid in both roles.
Things took a downward turn in 2020, when he limped to a 4.96 ERA in 32 2/3 frames, and the 2021 season has gone largely off the rails for the righty. So far, Ponce de Leon has pitched 33 1/3 innings and been tagged for a dismal 6.21 ERA. His 15.2 percent strikeout rate is far and away the lowest of his career, and his 13.9 percent strikeout rate is right in line with last season’s career-worst mark of 14.0 percent. Ponce de Leon is generating fewer swinging strikes than ever before, and the 89.1 mph average exit velocity he’s allowed is a career-high mark.
The Cardinals will place Ponce de Leon on outright waivers or release him within the next couple of days. It’s possible that given his 2018-19 success, another club in need of some depth would take a speculative look via waiver claim. However, Ponce de Leon is also out of minor league options, so any club that picks him up won’t have the luxury of sending him to the minors unless they can successfully pass him through waivers themselves.
Where did his youth go?????
Next stop to the Padres.
Not only that, he’ll be their ace.
Adam Wainwright found the Fountain of Youth first.
and Max Scherzer
Adam bit the apple, he’s solid to the core. Just keep him away from the ladies, he has a thing for ribs.
I came here for Fountain of Youth jokes. I didn’t even need to scroll. First post. Good job, gang.
Von, the joke community here is always on top of things
THERE IS A GOD!
prediction comes true. you don’t have issues with yadi and stick around.
His 6.21 ERA probably didn’t help his cause.
Omg, right?! I’m surprised it took this long.
Good call, the cameras caught it too.
When you have a public confrontation with the team’s skipper in the dugout, pack your backs. And of course I mean the man who runs the Redbirds — Yadi.
Voltaire agrees
I live off of the street named after him.
You live on Terrible ERA street?
Well played Dot
It’s a weird place to live/
We’ll played indeed
I thought you lived at 6 ERA Street?
Now that Ponce de Leon is cut, I wonder if they will finally call up Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and give him a chance.
no, magellan was more traveled
+1
I was hoping that either Bartolomé Díaz or Américo Vespucci would get the call
Can’t cross the goat
I hope he likes playing between Durham, NC and St. Petersburg, FL….
Looks like Ponce De Leon’s fountain has run dry
one thing that can get you in more trouble than anything else is……..your mouth.
He’ll definitely get claimed
He’ll make 5 or 6 more stops before all is said and done.
No. He. Was. Not. Claimed. So. Much. For. Your. Definitely. Did you know that his era is astronomical?????
He will be tomorrow’s Padres starter
He was effective in small doses but he really didn’t have much off speed stuff…he was living off of the 4 seamer… good luck to him..someone should pick him up
When Ponce walked three in a row with half the pitches headed to the back stop and in the dugout blew up at Yadi with finger pointing and yelling he was done… Hot tip; don’t try and show up a future HOF and Cardinal legend in Yadier Molina…
Are you being sarcastic when you say Molina is a future HOFer or are you actually that deluded?
Bengie was the best Molina
Seriously? May not be first ballot but, hater or not, dude is getting in the hall.
Anyone who thinks Yadi isn’t a future hall of famer is either ignorant, trolling, or jealous.
I bet you think offense is the only thing HOF voters should look at, huh?
Slam-dunk Hall of Famer.
A problem is that there aren’t statistics that accurately measure the full impact of a catcher. Pitcher usage in 2021 is but one example. This is a season where several MLB teams will use more than 40 pitchers. That is a load of responsibility for a catcher what with the game planning, communication, and building a rapport with the various pitchers. In many cases, it involves pitchers from different countries who don’t speak the same primary language as the catcher. Mike Piazza in 1997 was an example. That year, the Dodgers had four starting pitchers who spoke native languages other than English. For this reason, I feel Piazza’s deficiencies as a catcher are overstated. He had communication responsibilities that no other player in MLB had. And he handled it well while still hitting a ton.
There are other ways that a catcher’s impact can’t be accurately measured. They are involved in running the game in ways their teammates are not. Sufficed to say they’re not standing around on defense thinking about their next at-bat.
By the way, this year we lost both Bill Freehan and Del Crandall. These two catchers both made 11 all-star teams, yet neither got a whiff of the Hall of Fame. A difference is that Crandall’s total of 11 includes three years where there were two all-star games. Freehan’s total involves 11 different seasons. Before Johnny Bench came along, Freehan was universally acknowledged as the best catcher in the game. This included having to deal with the difficult personality of Denny McLain. He belongs.
Yadier Molina is a 10-time all-star (and counting)
Bengie – best Molina? Is that a joke?
Bengie – career WAR. 10.7
Yadi – career WAR 41.9 (and counting)
@card4life I’m also going on what yadi’s brothers said about him back in 04 iirc and not sure which brother said this.
Reporter – what do you think of your younger brother yadi and how does he compare to you guys
Older mo brother – he is the best catcher among us
What about Jose Molina??? 3.1 WAR!!
Don’t feed into Fletcher. He’s obviously mentally challenged.
His fastball has been atrocious this season.
I think Orioles claim him, give him a few innings, then probably designate him for assignment.
He has Padres written all over him
Got to be bound for either Tampa or Miami so he can resume his search……
He did have some big time situations that he performed with much successs….
But that was then and this is now
Dear Daniel….Just a word of advice….if you mess with the bull, you get the horns. CYA
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Texas what you doing? Why not take the flyer?
Wanna see something funny? Find the MLBTR article about the Cardinals trading for Jon Lester. This was, of course, soon after the JAHapp trade. Read the comments section. Hilarious. Is MO a genius? Definitely, if you compare him to the commenters.
No kidding. I wonder what Timbo314 or whatever changed his name to
This guy has Mets written all over him.
Year by year his stats were falling….but with a name like that I hope he comes back and conquers the strikezone
It would be interesting if Ponce de Leon ended up in San Diego, where Victor Caratini would be one of his catchers. Caratini hit the ball that struck and nearly killed Ponce de Leon in 2017. The two have since built a positive relationship.
Fwiw, I’m a fan of Ponce de Leon as I spent first grade (1964-65) in his hometown of La Mirada, California. I wonder if he attended John Foster Dulles Elementary School.
“…Ponce de Leon has been granted his release. He’ll be free to explore opportunities elsewhere.”
Ponce de Leon gets to explore. Well played.
1 pitch pitcher and he has had no control of that 1 pitch.
He’s an NPB/KBO/CPBL signing target right now.
I played with him in college. Great guy. Best of luck for him moving forward.