Cardinals Rumors

Cardinals Recall Guillermo Zuniga, Option Zack Thompson

By Anthony Franco | May 2, 2023 at 6:43pm CDT

The Cardinals recalled reliever Guillermo Zuñiga before tonight’s matchup with the Angels. In a corresponding move, left-hander Zack Thompson was optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Thompson will stretch out as a starting pitcher in the minors, tweets Jeff Jones of the Belleville News Democrat.

Zuñiga, 24, is now in position to make his major league debut. The Colombian-born hurler signed with the Dodgers over the 2017-18 offseason. He spent five years in the Los Angeles organization, topping out at Double-A. When the Dodgers elected not to add him to the 40-man roster last winter, he qualified for minor league free agency. Zuñiga landed a 40-man spot from the Cardinals in November.

Last offseason, Baseball America named the 6’5″ hurler the #30 prospect in the St. Louis farm system. The outlet credits him with an upper-90s heater that touches triple digits and a plus breaking ball but raises questions about his control. Zuñiga has thrown strikes in a small sample of work with Memphis this year, only walking two of 35 batters faced. He’s punched out nine and allowed five runs in 8 2/3 innings. He’ll add a power arm to the MLB mix for skipper Oli Marmol and can bounce on and off the active roster for the extended future, as he’s only in the first of three minor league option seasons.

Thompson, the Cardinals’ first round pick in 2019, has worked exclusively in relief this year. The hard-throwing southpaw has tossed 11 2/3 innings over 11 outings. The Kentucky product has fanned 18 but walked nine and surrendered seven runs. Thompson had a stronger go last year as a rookie, working to a 2.08 ERA with a huge 53.7% ground-ball percentage in 34 2/3 frames over 22 outings (all but one in relief).

While he’s only made one start at the major league level, Thompson has functioned primarily as a starter in the minors. The Cards apparently don’t want to foreclose that option entirely. It’d appear primarily a move with an eye towards 2024. St. Louis has a starting staff of Jordan Montgomery, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright for this season. Wainwright hasn’t pitched in the majors this season but will be reinstated from the injured list for his debut on Saturday, according to Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Jake Woodford is on hand behind that group.

Montgomery and Flaherty are headed for free agency at the end of the season. Wainwright has already announced plans to retire. That leaves Mikolas and Matz as the only locks for the 2024 staff. The Cardinals will surely have to address the rotation — either at this summer’s deadline or next offseason — but they’d get a boost if an internal option like Matthew Liberatore or Thompson could earn a spot. The 25-year-old Thompson will head back to Memphis and build his innings count as he looks to do just that.

Mike Shannon Passes Away

By Nick Deeds | April 30, 2023 at 1:54pm CDT

Former Cardinals third baseman, outfielder, and broadcaster Mike Shannon passed away last night at the age of 83, per a team announcement.

“The St. Louis Cardinals were saddened to learn this morning of the passing of Cardinals Hall of Famer and beloved St. Louisan Mike Shannon,” Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt Jr. said in a statement. “Mike’s unique connection to Cardinals fans and his teammates was reflected in his unbridled passion for the game, the Cardinals, and the St. Louis community.”

Shannon played for the Cardinals for nine seasons, from 1962 until 1970, when his playing career ended after he contracted nephritis. He won the World Series twice with the club, in both 1964 and 1967. In 1967, Shannon finished 7th in NL MVP voting, joining Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and winner Bob Gibson among Cardinals who finished in the top 10 that season. During his career, Shannon hit both the final home run in the original Busch Stadium and the first home run by the Cardinals in the second Busch Stadium. Overall, Shannon slashed .255/.311/.387 for his career, good for a roughly league average 97 wRC+.

Shortly after his retirement, Shannon joined the club’s broadcast booth in 1972. He would go on to spend 50 years as the voice of the Cardinals on the radio until his retirement following the 2021 season. Shannon was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014.

We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Shannon’s family, friends, and the many fans mourning him today.

The Ongoing Cardinals Outfield Battle

By Darragh McDonald | April 28, 2023 at 11:22am CDT

Even though the Cardinals traded away Harrison Bader last summer, they are still dealing with a crowded outfield mix. That’s thanks to the emergence of young players like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker. Those two joined Lars Nootbaar, Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson in the battle for playing time. That’s five guys for three spots, since infielder Nolan Gorman has been taking the designated hitter slot on most days, with Willson Contreras getting a couple of nods there as well when not catching.

The crowding evidently got to be a bit too much, as Walker was surprisingly optioned down to the minors this week. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak recently addressed the move, as relayed by John Denton of MLB.com (Twitter links). Mozeliak said the move was about getting some more consistency from this group, hoping that subtracting one member would make it easier for everyone to get into a good rhythm.

The results of this jockeying for playing time will have consequences for the club in the short term, as they are off to a rough 10-16 start and will need to gain ground in the coming months. There will also be long-term ramifications, since all of those players are still under club control next year. If the Cards find themselves outside the playoff picture in July, they could consider moving someone and still have plenty of options to fill the outfield. And , as we saw last year with the Bader deal, they could make a trade even when they are in contention. Those decisions will surely be based on how the individuals perform in the next few months, so let’s take a look at where things stand now.

Tyler O’Neill

O’Neill is the oldest and most experienced of the bunch, turning 28 in June and having debuted in 2018. He has between four and five years of service time, meaning he can be controlled via arbitration for one more year before reaching free agency after the 2024 season.

He has shown the ability to be an excellent all-around player, especially in 2021. O’Neill hit 34 home runs that year and slashed .286/.352/.560 overall for a wRC+ of 144. He also stole 15 bases and was graded well for his glovework in left field, leading to a tally of 5.6 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs. That currently stands out as a career year for O’Neill, who was slowed by injuries last year. He only got into 96 games and had a diminished .228/.308/.392 batting line (101 wRC+). This year, he’s hitting just .256/.318/.385 for a wRC+ of 98.

O’Neill and manager Oli Marmol got in a public spat earlier in the year when the latter accused the former of improper hustle and spoke to the media about it. O’Neill disagreed with the sentiment that he wasn’t giving his all and also didn’t seem to care for the issue being aired so openly. He was benched for one game but has been getting regular playing time since, seeming to suggest there’s no lingering ill will from the dust-up. He got some time in center field earlier in the year but has been back in left for the past couple of weeks.

Some observers have pointed to the fact that Bader was also criticized by Marmol for a lack of hustle last year, just about six weeks before he was flipped to the Yankees, therefore suggesting the writing is on the wall for O’Neill. That’s pure speculation, but O’Neill is the most logical trade candidate since he’s the oldest and closest to free agency. However, dealing him would be selling low unless he can regain some of that excellent form he showed a couple of years ago.

Lars Nootbaar

Nootbaar is in his third major league season but was frequently optioned in the first couple, meaning he’s played just 178 games thus far. He initially hovered around league average at the plate but has taken steps forward over the past year or so, seeming to thrive when he got more regular playing time. Bader went on the IL June 27 of last year with plantar fasciitis, moving Carlson over to center and opening right field for Nootbaar. Bader was then traded before even recovering from that ailment. Since that time, Nootbaar has walked almost as much as he’s been punched out, getting a free pass 17.2% of the time compared to an 18.4% strikeout rate. That’s led to a .244/.373/.478 batting line and a 141 wRC+. His strong results at the plate are backed up by Statcast, who ranked him in the 90th percentile last year in terms of average exit velocity, 80th in hard hit rate and 85th in barrel rate.

That strong work at the plate is accompanied by excellent glovework as well. Nootbaar has played all three outfield positions and has tallied two Outs Above Average, six Defensive Runs Saved and a 6.7 grade from Ultimate Zone Rating. In the comments from Mozeliak linked above, he said Nootbaar will be the regular center fielder going forward.

Nootbaar seems like a solid long-term piece for the Cardinals given his well-rounded contributions. He’s currently 25 years old and has between one and two years of service time. He won’t reach arbitration until after 2024 and isn’t slated for free agency until after 2027. Over the winter, both the Athletics (in Sean Murphy discussions) and Marlins (in Pablo Lopez talks) brought up Nootbaar as a target of interest, but the Cardinals rebuffed those overtures.

Alec Burleson

Unlike O’Neill and Nootbaar, Burleson has fewer dimensions to his game. His defense is generally considered subpar, even when limited to the corners, and Statcast pegs him in the 24th percentile in terms of sprint speed. He’s seen a bit of time at first base, dating back to last season.

The appeal of Burleson is his bat, which has the potential to hit for both contact and power. Outside of a brief debut in High-A in 2021, he’s generally been difficult to strike out both in the majors and the minors. He’s had only 134 major league plate appearances so far but has been punched out at just a 14.2% rate, well below this year’s 23% league average. He’s hit three home runs so far and currently has a line of .236/.295/.444. That’s just slightly above average, translating to a 104 wRC+, but that’s not bad for a player still getting his feet wet in the majors. He hit 20 home runs in 109 Triple-A games last year and slashed .331/.372/.532 (137 wRC+).

Burleson is just 24 years old and has less than a year of service, meaning he won’t qualify for arbitration until after 2025 and isn’t slated for free agency until 2028. He could be a long-term option in the corners for St. Louis, but he isn’t an exact match for their typical M.O. of placing an emphasis on defense.

Dylan Carlson

Carlson was considered one of the top prospects in baseball not too long ago, with Baseball America having him in the top 10 league-wide in 2020 and 2021. He got regular playing time over the past two years and proved himself to be a serviceable player with average-ish hitting and defense. Carlson hit .253/.331/.412 for a wRC+ of 107 over 2021 and 2022, walking and striking out at roughly league average rates. All three of DRS, OAA and UZR considered his glovework average or slightly above.

He’s been the one most squeezed by the logjam so far, only starting 10 of the club’s 26 games. The part-time role hasn’t suited him, as he’s hitting just .250/.308/.333 on the season for a wRC+ of 83. Perhaps he is the player with the most to gain from Walker’s demotion, as he will hopefully get some more trips to the plate and get into a better groove. He’s 24 years old but has between two and three years of service time already. He’s on pace to qualify for arbitration this winter and reach free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.

Jordan Walker

Walker parlayed a hot spring into an Opening Day roster spot despite being just 20 years old, turning 21 in May. He stayed hot to start the season, getting a hit in his first 12 games while slashing .319/.360/.489. He cooled off a bit from there, hitting just .192/.250/.231 since then. That latter line is a tiny sample of eight games, but the club still felt the best decision for everyone involved was for him to get regular at-bats in the minors and to spread his playing time around to the others. Between both of those stretches, he only walked in 3.8% of his trips to the plate.

Walker is still one of the best prospects in the game and will no doubt be back at some point. An injury to one of the other outfielders would quickly make space for him. He was on track to earn a full year of service this year but could wind up shy of that, depending how long he’s down on the farm.

Juan Yepez

Yepez has mashed in the minors over the past few years, hitting .252/.343/.487 in Double-A and .281/.362/.575 in Triple-A. He’s seemingly capable of carrying that over to the big leagues as well, having hit .257/.297/.453 for a wRC+ of 111 in 286 plate appearances. The problem is that he’s not considered a strong runner or defender. He could be a useful bat-first player in a corner spot, but the Cards have Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado at first and third, in addition to the crowded outfield mix. Yepez is 25 years old and still has a couple of option years, meaning the Cards can keep him as a depth piece for quite a while if they so choose.

Moises Gomez

Gomez isn’t considered a great runner or defender, nor does he have strong bat-to-ball skills. His standout tool is his power. Gomez hit 39 home runs last year in 120 games between Double-A and Triple-A, but also struck out in 34.7% of his plate appearances. He was added to the 40-man roster at season’s end to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency but is off to a slow start this year. Through 20 Triple-A games, he’s cut his strikeout rate to 24.7% but has gone deep just once and is walking just 4.7% of the time. His .234/.282/.351 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 58.

______________________________

There’s plenty of talent amid these options and it seems entirely possible that a trade will be on the table this summer, whether the Cardinals climb back into contention or not. They could easily move one of these players for some pitching, just like they did with Bader last year, and still have good options for filling out the lineup card every night. The club’s front office has just over three months to decide how to play it.

Dick Groat Passes Away

By Steve Adams | April 27, 2023 at 10:50am CDT

Former National League MVP and eight-time All-Star Dick Groat has passed away at the age of 92, the Pirates announced this morning.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family and Pittsburgh community,” Pirates owner Bob Nutting said in a statement announcing the news. “The National League MVP and World Series Champion in 1960, Dick remained a very active and cherished member of our Alumni Association. We were honored to have just recently informed Dick and his family that he had been selected to the Pirates Hall of Fame. He was a great player and an even better person. Our thoughts go out to his three daughters, eleven grandchildren and the entire Groat family. His was a life well lived. He will be missed.”

A Pittsburgh-area native and one of the best two-sport athletes ever, Groat not only played in MLB but also had a brief stint in the NBA on the heels of a historic basketball career at Duke University, where his number is retired. Groat was the third overall pick in the 1952 NBA draft but wound up playing in just one season after enlisting in the Army and focusing on his baseball career following his discharge.

Groat jumped right from his career at Duke into Major League Baseball, bypassing the minor leagues entirely. He batted .284/.319/.313 and finished third in 1952 NL Rookie of the Year voting before the previously mentioned two years of military service. Upon returning in 1955, he posted similar numbers for his next two seasons and took a step forward in 1957, the first of four seasons in which Groat would receive MVP votes.

From 1957-64, Groat batted a combined .299/.340/.393, regularly making the All-Star team along the way and four times garnering some level of MVP consideration. That includes a 1960 season in which he won a batting title and batted .325/.371/.394 on his way to being named the National League MVP. He also finished as the MVP runner-up to Sandy Koufax in 1963 — Groat’s first season with the Cardinals after being sent to St. Louis in a trade that brought pitcher Don Cardwell and infielder Julio Gotay back to Pittsburgh.

In all, Groat played in parts of 14 Major League seasons: nine with the Pirates, three with the Cardinals, two with the Phillies and one partial season with the Giants. He retired as a lifetime .286/.330/.366 batter with 2138 hits, 39 home runs, 352 doubles, 67 triples, 829 runs scored and 707 runs batted in. He won World Series rings with the Pirates in 1960 and with the Cardinals in 1964, helping both clubs topple the Yankees in the Fall Classic.

Following his playing days, Groat spent 40 years as a broadcaster for the University of Pittsburgh’s men’s basketball team, further endearing himself to hometown fans and further establishing his legacy in his native city’s sporting lore.

Groat will be remembered as one of the greatest two-sport talents we’ve ever seen, a World Series champion in both Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and a beloved broadcaster in his hometown. We at MLBTR extend our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and the countless fans he accumulated over the course of a remarkable career.

Cardinals Option Jordan Walker, Sign Taylor Motter To Major League Contract

By Anthony Franco | April 26, 2023 at 4:06pm CDT

The Cardinals have signed utilityman Taylor Motter to a major league deal, the club announced. In a corresponding active roster move, they optioned highly-touted rookie Jordan Walker to Triple-A Memphis.

Walker, one of the consensus top young talents in the sport, broke camp with the MLB club. He’s been passable if unexceptional through his first 78 plate appearances. He’d drawn plenty of attention for a season-opening 12-game hit streak that matched an MLB record for a player his age. Walker has collected hits in 16 of his 19 starts overall, though his game logs mostly consist of one-hit performances. He’s gotten to two hits on just four occasions and has yet to put up a three-hit game. Overall, the former first round draftee is hitting .274/.321/.397 with a pair of home runs in 20 contests. That offensive output is almost exactly league average, as measured by wRC+.

That’s certainly a respectable showing for a player who has yet to reach his 21st birthday. Many hitters Walker’s age are still in the low minors or in college. League average offense through his first three weeks in the majors is no small feat. That said, the organization clearly wasn’t enamored with some of the underlying indicators. He’s punched out 20 times while walking on just three occasions, with both marks checking in worse than league average. To his credit, Walker is hitting the ball with authority when he’s making contact, but he’s swung and missed at 16.4% of the pitches he’s seen. Only eight qualified hitters are whiffing more often.

St. Louis evidently feels he’s better served honing his pitch selection in Triple-A despite his solid overall results. Walker has never played a Triple-A game. He skipped right to the big leagues after a .306/.388/.510 showing in 119 Double-A contests. He’ll presumably continue to get everyday corner outfield reps in Memphis. Drafted as a third baseman, Walker has begun seeing more outfield time in deference to Nolan Arenado. Public defensive metrics have given him below-average marks in his limited body of MLB work (170 innings).

The Cardinals have given Walker the bulk of the right field time. Evidently, they’ll now turn the outfield over to some combination of Alec Burleson, Dylan Carlson, Tyler O’Neill and Lars Nootbaar. Nootbaar is mashing but the rest of the group has been off to middling starts. Burleson and O’Neill have also posted roughly average numbers, while Carlson has limped to a .234/.294/.298 line.

While there are some legitimate concerns about Walker’s early statistical profile, the lack of overwhelming production from those competing for outfield reps makes this an eyebrow-raising decision from the Cards’ front office. St. Louis can point to performance concerns as justification for the move, but it’s at least likely to spur some questions from fans. It’s possible the demotion will wind up extending the Cardinals’ window of club control.

Had Walker played the entire season in the majors, he’d have picked up a full year of MLB service. That’d have put him on track to reach arbitration after the 2025 season and first hit free agency following the 2028 campaign. An optional stint lasting more than 20 days would delay the free agent trajectory unless Walker earns “bonus” service time by returning and securing a top two finish in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. Barring a surprisingly long stay in the minors, he’d likely still get to arbitration over the 2025-26 offseason as a Super Two player. The Cardinals were clearly comfortable enough with potentially burning a pre-arbitration season to carry Walker on the Opening Day roster; they’ve surprisingly started just 9-15 and currently sit at the bottom of the NL Central in spite of that move.

While the Walker demotion is the higher-profile transaction, it’s also surprising to see the Cardinals move so quickly to bring Motter back into the fold. St. Louis had designated the veteran utilityman for assignment over the weekend once Paul DeJong returned from the injured list. Motter cleared waivers but had the right to decline an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency. Reports this morning suggested he was prepared to stick in the organization, though perhaps that was with an understanding with club officials that he’d be brought back to the majors imminently.

In any event, Motter will rejoin the MLB roster. He joins DeJong as middle infield insurance behind Brendan Donovan, Tommy Edman and primary designated hitter Nolan Gorman. The 33-year-old Motter has appeared in seven games this year, collecting four hits and two walks through 20 trips to the dish. He’s a career .192/.264/.310 hitter at the highest level.

Cardinals Outright Taylor Motter

By Steve Adams | April 26, 2023 at 10:26am CDT

Cardinals infielder/outfielder Taylor Motter, who was designated for assignment over the weekend when Paul DeJong was reinstated from the injured list, has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Because he’s been outrighted previously in his career, Motter has the ability to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. However, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that Motter is expected to accept the assignment. He’s being added to the roster at Memphis and will remain in the organization.

Motter, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Cardinals over the winter and rode a solid spring training effort to a spot on the team’s Opening Day roster. He received limited playing time in a bench role with St. Louis, appearing in seven games and batting .222/.300/.333 with a pair of walks and eight strikeouts in 20 trips to the plate before being designated for assignment.

Beyond this brief stint with the Cardinals, the well-traveled Motter has spent time in the Majors with the Rays, Mariners, Twins, Red Sox, Rockies and Reds. He also had a brief stint with the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization during the 2020 season. Overall, Motter is a career .192/.264/.310 hitter in 466 big league plate appearances but carries a more robust .262/.352/.482 slash in 2062 Triple-A plate appearances.

Motter’s versatility surely holds broad-reaching appeal around the league. He’s logged at least 1200 professional innings at each of shortstop, second base, third base, left field and right field, plus another 513 innings in center and 389 innings at first base. He’s even pitched an inning and a third of mop-up duty in the Majors, leaving catcher as the lone position he’s never played at any professional level.

Cardinals Activate Paul DeJong, DFA Taylor Motter

By Nick Deeds | April 23, 2023 at 1:17pm CDT

The Cardinals have activated infielder Paul DeJong from the 10-day IL, per a team announcement. He’ll be in the starting lineup at shortstop for today’s game against the Mariners. To make room on the active roster, infielder Taylor Motter has been designated for assignment.

DeJong, 29, will look to bounce back from a brutal 2022 season that saw him slash just .157/.245/.286 in 77 games that culminated in him getting optioned to Triple-A, where he spent 51 games in 2022. That demotion to Triple-A seemed to help DeJong rediscover his bat, as he slashed .249/.313/.552 in 230 plate appearances. His activation hardly comes as a surprise, as the club announced yesterday that they were expecting to activate him today.

The real surprise here, then, is the decision to DFA Motter. DeJong was already on the 40-man roster, and Motter had options remaining, meaning the club could have simply optioned him to Triple-A. Instead, the club will have seven days to trade, waive, or release Motter. It’s a situation not unfamiliar for Motter, who has played for seven clubs across six season in the big leagues. Drafted by the Rays in the 17th round of the draft, Motter made his MLB debut in Tampa back in 2016, and has since suited up for the Mariners, Twins, Rockies, Red Sox, and Reds prior to joining the Cardinals on a minor league deal ahead of the 2023 season.

Motter hasn’t hit much to this point in his career, with just a .192/.264/.310 slash line in 466 plate appearances. Still, Motter provides valuable versatility, given his experience at every position on the diamond besides catcher and center field. He’ll likely clear waivers and look to latch on with another club on a minor league deal. After the move, the Cardinals’ 40-man roster stands at 39.

Cardinals Plan To Activate Paul DeJong From 10-Day IL On Sunday

By Mark Polishuk | April 22, 2023 at 8:42pm CDT

The Cardinals are aiming to activate infielder Paul DeJong from the 10-day injured list on Sunday, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). A corresponding move will be determined by the team prior to its game with the Mariners.

A bad back sidelined DeJong about a week before the start of the regular season, and he began the campaign on the IL. The missed time in Spring Training meant that DeJong had a fairly lengthy minor league rehab assignment, as he played a combined 12 games at the A-ball and Triple-A levels, totaling a .302/.388/.512 slash line over 49 plate appearances. Yesterday, DeJong went 3-for-4 with a homer and six RBI with Triple-A Memphis.

Now recovered from his back problems, DeJong will enter the seventh and most pivotal season of his MLB tenure. This is the final guaranteed season of DeJong’s six-year, $26MM deal — he is owed $9MM this season, and the Cardinals seem very likely to then buy out DeJong (for $1MM) rather than exercise their $12.5MM club option on his services for 2024. After an All-Star performance in 2019, DeJong has hit only .196/.280/.351 with 28 homers over 813 PA since the start of the 2020 season.

In that time, DeJong’s shortstop defense has remained very good, but Tommy Edman has taken over the everyday shortstop job thanks to equal or better glovework and a more consistent performance at the plate. With this in mind, it is hard to see exactly how much playing time DeJong might get at shortstop or second base, with Edman now entrenched at short and Nolan Gorman and utilityman Brendan Donovan splitting time at the keystone. The DH spot doesn’t offer much relief, as the Cards are also trying to find at-bats for their outfield surplus.

It could be that St. Louis just uses DeJong as a bench player, perhaps supplanting Taylor Motter (who seems like the most obvious candidate to be optioned to Triple-A as DeJong’s replacement). In theory, the Cards might try to give DeJong some playing time to showcase him for any sort of trade, yet that doesn’t seem likely unless the Cardinals were to eat basically all of the infielder’s remaining salary, which the club was hesitant to do last winter.

NL Central Notes: Frelick, Houser, Wainwright, Rodriguez, Pirates

By Mark Polishuk | April 22, 2023 at 7:08pm CDT

A left thumb sprain sent Brewers outfield prospect Sal Frelick to the seven-day Triple-A injured list this week, and MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that Frelick is getting a second opinion on the injury. Though a second opinion is often something of an ominous sign, “it sounds like the more [the Brewers] learn, the more they believe Sal avoided a serious injury,” McCalvy writes. That’s good news for Frelick, who celebrated his 23rd birthday earlier this week.

A consensus top-50 prospect heading into the season, Frelick was picked 15th overall by the Brewers in the 2021 draft, and he has mostly been tearing up minor league pitching during his brief pro career. He played in 46 Triple-A games last season and was projected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2023, though Frelick has been set back by both his thumb problem and a slow start in general, as he has hit a modest .232/.318/.321 over 65 Triple-A plate appearances this year. Had he been healthy, Frelick might have been in the majors as early as this weekend, given that Garrett Mitchell might be facing a season-ending shoulder surgery. Once Frelick is himself healthy, he’ll certainly be on Milwaukee’s radar as a possible answer to its outfield depth issues.

IL Activations: Hughes, Nootbaar, Kepler, Lorenzen

By Mark Polishuk | April 15, 2023 at 6:11pm CDT

Catching up on notable players returning from the injured list today…

LATEST MOVES

The Cubs activated left-hander Brandon Hughes from the 15-day IL, and outfielder Nelson Velazquez was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space. Hughes was bothered by inflammation in his left knee during Spring Training, so Chicago placed him on the IL prior to Opening Day so Hughes could recover and then complete his ramp-up progress. In an impressive rookie season, Hughes posted a 3.12 ERA and an above-average 28.3% strikeout rate (albeit with a subpar walk rate) over 57 2/3 innings out of the Cubs’ bullpen.

EARLIER TODAY

The Cardinals activated Lars Nootbaar from the 10-day IL, and sent Juan Yepez to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Nootbaar was in the St. Louis lineup for the first time since Opening Day, when he injured his left thumb diving into a base. While the Cardinals’ outfield depth chart might prevent Nootbaar from true everyday duty, he is still expected to get a lot of playing time as a left-handed hitter capable of playing all three outfield spots. Jordan Walker’s emergence has only added to a crowded outfield picture that also includes Nootbaar, Tyler O’Neill, Alec Burleson, Dylan Carlson, Yepez, and utilityman Brendan Donovan.
The Twins activated outfielder Max Kepler from the 10-day IL, as Kepler returned after missing the minimum 10 days while recovering from right patellar tendinitis. Minnesota optioned outfielder Matt Wallner to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Kepler’s return will bring a bit of relief for the injury-plagued Twins, and he’ll look for something of a reset to his season after playing in only four games prior to his IL stint. Kepler is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract, and will be a free agent this winter unless the Twins exercise a $10MM club option for 2024.
Michael Lorenzen made his first start of the season today, as the Tigers activated the right-hander from the 15-day IL. Unsurprisingly, Lorenzen showed some rust, allowing six earned runs over four innings in what ended up being a 7-6 comeback win for Detroit over San Francisco. A left groin strain has kept Lorenzen on the shelf, but going forward, he is expected to contribute in the Tigers’ rotation after signing a one-year, $8.5MM free agent deal during the offseason. Along with activating Lorenzen, Detroit also called up southpaw Tyler Holton from Triple-A, and sent righty Garrett Hill and infielder Ryan Kreidler to Triple-A.

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