The Cardinals are calling up César Prieto, reports Francys Romero. They’ll select his contract onto the 40-man roster tomorrow. St. Louis has a pair of openings on the 40-man, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding active roster transaction.
Prieto, a left-handed hitting infielder, gets his first big league opportunity at age 26. He didn’t begin his affiliated career until he was 22 years old. He’s a Cuba native who played four seasons in that nation’s top league before defecting while on an Olympic trip in 2021. He signed a $650K bonus with the Orioles and began his U.S. career with their High-A affiliate a year later.
The O’s traded Prieto to St. Louis as part of a three-player return for Jack Flaherty at the 2023 trade deadline. His prospect stock dropped between 2023-24 as he posted unspectacular numbers at Triple-A. Prieto has performed well in his third season at the top minor league level. He’s batting .295/.359/.448 with nine homers and 11 steals across 449 plate appearances.
Prieto’s calling card is his plus contact ability. He hasn’t struck out in more than 15.2% of his plate appearances at any minor league stop. He has fanned just 13.4% of the time this season. Prieto has a very aggressive offensive approach and often expands the strike zone. He’s not going to take many walks or hit for much power, but the bat-to-ball skills should allow him to hit for average. Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan of FanGraphs ranked him the #25 prospect in the St. Louis system last month, projecting him as a utility infielder.
The Cardinals have used him at second base, third base and shortstop in the minors. Scouting reports suggest he’s a fringe defender who doesn’t have a huge arm. He probably fits best at the keystone but could see action throughout the infield. He would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason if the Cards didn’t add him to the 40-man roster. It appears they were planning to select his contract during the winter, so they’ll bring him up a bit ahead of time for his first exposure to big league pitching.
St. Louis is using Thomas Saggese, Masyn Winn and Nolan Gorman from right to left on the infield. Winn has played through a sore left knee for much of the second half. He acknowledged earlier this week that he’d probably benefit from rest but said he wanted to remain in the lineup in hope of a long shot playoff berth (relayed by Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat). The Cardinals are 6.5 games back of the Mets with three teams to surpass in the Wild Card race. It’s not yet known if they’ll shut Winn down or simply swap Prieto in for one of Garrett Hampson or José Fermín on the bench.
The only small hope the Cards have of getting any major league production from the Flaherty trade. Doubt there’s much here but he has great contact skills.
Showalter is young but Prieto and Rom appear to be bums.
In what world is Prieto more deserving than Wetherholt???
Mozeliak’s world, apparently.
It’s not about “deserving” it. They don’t need to put Wetherholt on the 40 man roster yet.
So Mozeliak won’t use a 40 man roster spot for Wetherholt because of the upcoming Rule 5 draft but he’ll use up one for Prieto? What’s the reasoning here?
Prieto could be plucked in the rule 5. They probably want to get a look before that happens.
Why use one for Wetherholt when you don’t need to. He’s only got 95 games in AA and AAA combined, all this year.
Why so serious? That’s one intense dood
Dude looks high af
I look forward to seeing what he can do. Maybe he can provide a spark for the redbirds.
I know it’s probably too late for this season, but would be nice to finish on a positive note. .295 avg in Triple AAA is fairly decent.
Question: why do the Cardinal players flap their arms when they get a hit? Are they saying “Let the baby birds fly” or something else?