The Cardinals have traded first baseman John Nogowski to the Pirates in exchange for cash considerations, per the teams. St. Louis had recently designated Nogowski for assignment.
The move kicked off a series of roster changes for the Pirates. For starters, to make room for Nogowski, the Pirates designated Geoff Hartlieb for assignment, notes MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (via Twitter). They also placed Ka’ai Tom on the 10-day injured list because of a lower back strain and recalled right-hander Kyle Keller from Triple-A.
The Cardinals made their own flurry of roster moves today, but here they were simply moving on from a somewhat-limited player without a role. Nogowski surprisingly made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster because of a strong spring. As a first baseman on a roster with Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Carpenter, however, the only role available to Nogowski was as a right-handed power bat off the bench. He went 1-for-18, walking once while only striking out twice. A bone bruise placed Nogowski on the injured list from April 23rd to May 18th.
With the Pirates, the 28-year-old can server as a right-handed compliment to Ben Gamel, with Phillip Evans moving from first base to the outfield. As we near the trade deadline, more playing could very well open up in Pittsburgh as well.
Hartlieb, 27, has a 7.71 ERA through four games with the Pirates. He will now be exposed to waivers. Keller, 28, returns to the big league club with three appearances and a 8.10 ERA to his name so far — though in only 3 1/3 innings. Keller has been very productive in Triple-A, where he has a 1.95 ERA over 18 1/3 innings with a stellar 43.7 percent strikeout rate and minuscule 4.2 percent walk rate. If those numbers translate at all to the Majors, the Marlins would have a quality arm to deploy from the bullpen.
