The Cardinals have released left-hander Ricardo Sanchez and right-hander Jesus Cruz. Neither hurler pitched in the majors in 2021, as Sanchez was recovering from Tommy John surgery and Cruz spent the season at the Cards’ alternate training camp in April and then with Triple-A Memphis.
Both pitchers made their MLB debuts in 2020, with Sanchez getting a slightly longer look in the Show. Sanchez pitched 5 1/3 innings over three appearances with St. Louis, while Cruz was up in pure “cup of coffee” form with one inning of work in a single game.
Sanchez’s debut season was also set back by a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, as he was one of many Cardinals players caught up in an outbreak that ravaged the roster. The southpaw was also sidelined by elbow problems in August that eventually resulted in the TJ procedure in October 2020. Going by the normal 12-15 month Tommy John recovery timeline, Sanchez should be ready to pitch again, though it isn’t known if he experienced any setbacks in his rehab.
Sanchez is a veteran of seven pro seasons, mostly spent in the Braves’ farm system. The left-hander has a 4.52 ERA over 517 1/3 career innings in the minors, though he had gradually improved the control issues that plagued him in his early days.
Cruz was an international signing for the Cardinals in the 2017-18 July 2 class, spending some time in the Mexican League before joining the Cards organization. Cruz posted a 3.90 ERA over 210 minor league innings, amassing a strong 29.86% strikeout rate, but with a high 13.38% walk rate. Troublingly, Cruz’s control issues have gotten worse as he has worked his way up the minor league ladder.
Forsaken.
Too bad for them. I hope they find a new club soon.
Pittsburgh Pirates are on the phone. They are looking for lighting in the bottle this year.
Both are unproven, a different team, a different time, who knows. I hear the Mets might be looking for pitchers?
So are the Cardinals
You might want to compare the Cardinals against any other franchise the last 25 before you make smart butt remarks pun.
What is “smart butt” about his reply. The Cardinals legit could use another starter.
Intellectual posterior?
Binn: themed is absolutley one of the lowest quality commentors on here. He routinely trolls cub boards with stupidity, and operates by the cardinal golden rule: “if its a good statement about cards, its fact. If its bad, its not fact. If you cant debate bad facts, cite pennants.” Reality is irrelevant. The funny thing is this phenomenon seems to only affect Cardinal fans, or a subset of them. I think its a Missouri thing.
don’t lump themed in with the rest of us from missouri most of us are pretty realistic about our teams.
also to themed not sure if you’ve kept up with the cards the last few years but we need another starter or two it’s ok to take the rose colored glasses off and stop drinking the kool-aid once in a while. looking at the cards objectively won’t make you a bad fan
Brodie: apologies. You are right. Not all Cards fans are insufferable. There is definitely an emboldened subset of Cards fans, though, that have zero connection on reality. Themed leads the charge of these low brows.
I know more about the Cardinals needs and weaknesses and strengths in my little pinky than you donks know in your entire lives. I don’t always believe they are the best team but I do know they never tank. Not too many organizations can make that clam nowadays. Every team has question marks at the beginning of the year. Wise up!
^^^
Binn and Brodie – talk about supporting evidence! Look at this gem. I literally laughed aloud.
Sit back and look at that thing. Imagine the intellect it required….Themed never fails to underwelm.
Themed muted me. I don’t know what I said but he’s a puss. Thick-headed but not thick-skinned.
@down we may not see eye to eye often but you at least argue with facts which i can respect. also you make a good point yes cards have won a lot in the past but that’s the past right now the way i see it we are an above average team that are a few pieces away from being a good team.
@themed your right we don’t tank because the fan base won’t allow it but please stop bringing up past accomplishments makes us look arrogant we haven’t done crap since 13 but get weaker and avg. we have needed a tor arm for years now as well as pitching depth. if we are serious about winning chips then we need to start acting like it and take a few risks and not this low hanging fruit bs. bally sports pretty much pays the players payroll so there is no excuse why we couldn’t of gotten a decent pitcher and one of the big ss this year
Yes just like fans of every other franchise we’d like to have the very best players at every position and the best starting 5. If they don’t just call them going after low hanging fruit. Get realistic! Please!
@themed when was the last time mo has signed someone that wasn’t off the scrap heap other than dexter. the last 2 years we have needed at least 2 sp even going into this season and mo has done nothing. matz was a good pick up but we still needed another arm or two, we could of gotten grenkie yes he’s not the ace he once was but i think he would of been a good fit in stl with our d. your right thou we’re going to be ws champs with the patchwork rotation and dejong at ss. put the the pipe down and take the glasses off bro and come back to reality
He got you Goldsmith. He got you Arenado. What keeps the Cards in contention year after year is the above average farm system. Look at all the players the Cards have developed over the years. Try to remember they don’t operate with the same budgets as the Dodgers Red Sox or Yankees but are just as successful.
It seems the cardinals are going back to what worked in the early 2000’s…great defense…great offense…and ok pitching staff and bullpen…I think people are really underestimating them…health is the biggest concern…and that is for many teams…Losing Flaherty really hurts but I remember what Mikolas did and the end last year…and Hudson…with Hudson, Mikolas. Wainwright and Matz if those four can stay healthy the Cardinals are contenders no doubt…the way Hicks is throwing the bullpen will be fine…and check out Dejong this Spring…I think we forget that Dejong had a bad go with Covid and a broken rib last year but still hit 19 HR…the games still have to be played so let’s see but I like the Cardinals chances
Good point cards81. Nice to read another Cardinals fan post that actually makes sense instead of these nonsense donks that don’t understand the game or operating under a reasonable budget.
Hey Braves… go get Sanchez on a minor league deal. He had more ups than downs in our system. Maybe we can save his career a tiny bit. Former top prospect that if I were a bottom feeder in the league, (orioles marlins) then I’d consider finding a spot for him on the roster or minors. Low risk hope to strike gold type player.