The Cardinals announced they’ve selected outfielder Moisés Gómez onto the 40-man roster, a move first reported by Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The decision prevents him from qualifying for minor league free agency in the coming days.
It’s the first stint on an MLB 40-man roster for Gómez. A Venezuela native, he first joined the professional ranks as an international signee of the Rays during the 2014-15 signing period. The right-handed hitter drew some prospect attention a few years later, with his power potential and decent corner outfield defense giving him a chance to be a part of the long-term Tampa Bay outfield. He appeared among Baseball America’s top 30 prospects in an always-deep Rays farm system every year from 2019-21, but he fell off the prospect radar with a dismal .171/.256/.309 showing in 76 Double-A games last year.
Tampa Bay declined to put Gómez on their 40-man roster after that season, and he qualified for minor league free agency as a player who’d spent seven years in the minors. The Cardinals gave him another shot, inking him to a non-roster deal and sending him to Double-A Springfield. Gómez had an incredible .321/.401/.705 showing, popping 23 home runs in 257 plate appearances in his second crack at the level. The Cards bumped him to Triple-A Memphis, where he added another 16 longballs with a .266/.340/.541 line in 244 trips to the dish. That didn’t get him onto the MLB roster during the season, but St. Louis will add him to the 40-man now to retain his long-term contractual rights.
It remains to be seen if Gómez will hold that roster spot all winter. He clearly has big power potential, with Guerrero noting his 39 cumulative homers led all minor league players this year. Questions about his hit tool lingered during his time in the Tampa Bay system, though, and those are still present in spite of his huge power showing. Gómez struck out in an immense 34.7% of his plate appearances this year, a rate not topped by any big league hitter with 500+ trips to the dish. Any further spike in whiffs against MLB arms would figure to leave Gómez on the roster bubble.
Whatever concerns the Cards front office may have about his swing-and-miss propensity, they clearly value Gómez enough not to let him walk at the start of the winter. His selection brings their 40-man roster tally to 37.
This dude is another gonna be really good or a AAAA player. Feel like there is no in between.
This will get us over the top. Look out all, here come the cards!!’
looks like that .171 BAA was in ’21, baseball-reference.com has him hitting .294/.371/.624 with 39 HRs and 100 RBIs across two levels in ’22
A bit odd to refer to 2021 as “last year” when many would read that as a reference to the just-concluded season, but 2021 was last year, so it’s technically correct, if a bit confusing.
About time.
Trade him while his value is high. Walker is moving to the outfield already. Having Carlson, Walker, Noot, O’Neill and now Burleson in the outfield mix, Gomez needs to be flipped for starting pitching or maybe a catcher if the Jays or As view him highly enough. If not, add in something in addition to Gomez.
maybe. Other teams see the strikeout rate as well. might be better to see if they can fix some holes in his swing before making a decision to trade him.
Future DH. Got the body of a young Kyle schwarber, and Nelson Cruz. With it here to stay in the NL I hope the cards keep him.
Needs to grow a couple inches and gain about 30# to match Cruz or Schwarber.
Nothing a few quarts of Tillamook ice cream can’t fix.
34.7 % strike out rate? Yikes!!! Hopefully he can turn that around. Cards already have plenty of hitters in that category.
Right… if they out Right sold Adolis Garcia for being the same type of player idk?
At first I thought it said Moises Alou