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Cardinals Sign Wade LeBlanc

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The Cardinals announced the signing of left-hander Wade LeBlanc.  The deal is apparently a Major League contract, as LeBlanc will move directly onto the Cards’ active roster.  In corresponding moves, right-hander Seth Elledge was optioned to Triple-A, and infielder Max Moroff was moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL.

LeBlanc is now lined up to pitch for the ninth different team of his 13-season MLB career.  LeBlanc was also briefly a member of the Brewers and Rangers organizations within the last two months, signing minor league contracts with both clubs but not receiving a promotion to the majors.

This transactional carousel began after the Orioles outrighted LeBlanc in April, and the veteran southpaw decided to become a free agent.  The move ended a tough two-year stint for LeBlanc in Baltimore that saw him post an 8.38 ERA over 29 innings, with LeBlanc starting seven of his 12 total appearances in the black-and-orange.

St. Louis manager Mike Shildt told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat and The Athletic’s Katie Woo) that the Cardinals will mostly use LeBlanc as a relief pitcher.  While LeBlanc’s recent results don’t exactly indicate a quick fix for a struggling Cards bullpen, he can at least provide the team with some depth as a long man, and perhaps even as a spot starter in the event of more injuries within the rotation.  LeBlanc’s splits against left-handed batters have still been generally good, so a more situational usage — within the boundaries of the three-batter rule — might be the more optimal way to deploy the southpaw at this stage of his career.

“He’s got versatility. He’s not overly splitty, throws strikes to both righties and lefties.  But he’s built up, he’s got some length,” Shildt said.

Central Notes: Indians, Fillmyer, Cardinals, Pike, Elledge, Tigers, Greiner

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It’s Memorial Day, which means a full slate of day baseball. While we await the start of the action, let’s round up some news and notes from around the game…

  • The Indians have purchased the contract of Heath Fillmyer from the Lancaster Barnstormers, per the Atlantic League club. Fillmyer has been assigned to Triple-A. The 27-year-old right-hander last appeared in the Majors in 2019 withe the Royals. He owns a 5.07 ERA/5.31 FIP over 104 2/3 innings between 2018-19.
  • The Cardinals have called up Seth Elledge from Memphis, per MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (via Twitter). The move comes as a response to Kodi Whitley being placed on the 10-day injured list because of mild back spasms. St. Louis also signed southpaw Tyler Pike to a minor league contract, according to their transactions log on MLB.com.
  • Tigers catcher Grayson Greiner is putting his rehab assignment on hold for now after experiencing some hamstring discomfort, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group (via Twitter). He’s been on the injured list since May 12th. The 28-year-old backstop owns a .237/.256/.342 line in 39 plate appearances on the year.

Cardinals Activate Miles Mikolas From Injured List

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The Cardinals have activated Miles Mikolas off the 10-day injured list, and the right-hander will start against the Cubs tonight.  Righty Seth Elledge was sent to Triple-A to open up a 26-man roster spot for Mikolas.

October 11, 2019 marked the last time Mikolas appeared in a big league game, as he allowed one run over six innings in Game 1 of the 2019 NLCS.  Flexor tendon surgery caused Mikolas to miss the entire 2020 season, and then shoulder problems delayed his return until today.

This isn’t the first time Mikolas’ Major League career has been interrupted, as he headed to Japan following the 2014 season and revived his stock with three outstanding seasons with the Yomiuri Giants.  After signing a two-year, $15.5MM deal with the Cardinals in the 2017-18 offseason, Mikolas took that new form back into MLB, finishing sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2018.

That success led to another contract with St. Louis, as Mikolas signed a four-year extension worth $68MM.  Since that extension started with the 2020 season, however, Mikolas has yet to throw even a single pitch since that new deal kicked in, making it a questionable investment to date for the Cards’ front office.  Still, there is plenty of time for Mikolas to still deliver, and his return should further bolster the Cardinals’ pitching staff.

Jack Flaherty, Kwang Hyun Kim, and John Gant have all been very solid for the Cards this season, while Carlos Martinez and Adam Wainwright have been a little more inconsistent.  St. Louis plans to use a six-man rotation for the time being, unless plans change due to other injuries.

Cardinals Make Several Roster Moves

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The Cardinals have made four call-ups from their alternate training site, as left-hander Rob Kaminsky, first baseman John Nogowski, and right-handers Ryan Meisinger and Seth Elledge are all joining the active roster.  They will take the roster spots left open by infielder Max Schrock and righties Daniel Ponce de Leon and Junior Fernandez, who are all headed to the alternate site.  In addition, left-hander Ricardo Sanchez has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to pain in his throwing elbow.

Ponce de Leon, Fernandez, Sanchez, and even Schrock (in mop-up duty) pitched in last night’s 14-2 loss to the Indians.  Ponce de Leon started and lasted only two-thirds of an inning, allowing four runs on four walks and two hits.

This demotion won’t last long, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Ponce De Leon will be back as the 29th man for next weekend’s doubleheader against the Cubs.  As for Ponce De Leon’s normal starting spot, however, Johan Oviedo will now take a regular turn in the rotation.  Oviedo has made two starts already for the Cards this season, looking solid in posting a 3.60 ERA over 10 innings.

Sanchez’s ominous-sounding injury continues what has already been a difficult year for the 23-year-old, as he missed two weeks in July recovering from a COVID-19 diagnosis.  The southpaw did make his big league debut this season, posting a 6.75 ERA over 5 1/3 IP (three games).

Cardinals Add Three To Summer Camp Roster

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The Cardinals have added right-hander Seth Elledge and lefties Zack Thompson and Rob Kaminsky to their Summer Camp roster at Busch Stadium, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers tweets. Doing so means each has been added to the team’s 60-man player pool. The Cardinals’ initial pool contained 44 players, and they’ve since added third baseman Elehuris Montero to camp as well (although he was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, as were southpaws Genesis Cabrera and Ricardo Sanchez).

Thompson, 22, is both the most highly regarded of today’s trio of additions and also the furthest from the Majors. The University of Kentucky product was the Cardinals’ first-round pick (No. 19 overall) in 2019 and ranks as their No. 5 prospect at FanGraphs and MLB.com. Thompson, however, only pitched two innings of Rookie ball and 13 1/3 frames with the Cards’ Class-A Advanced club in 2019. His inclusion is likely more for developmental purposes than due to his status a a legitimate option in 2020. He was seen as something of an injury risk in the ’19 draft but draws praise for a plus curve and above-average changeup. He was with the team during the initial Spring Training and tossed three perfect innings with three strikeouts.

Both Elledge and Kaminsky are more likely to be called upon should a need arise in 2020. Elledge, 24, is a pure bullpen prospect who came to the Cards in the trade that sent Sam Tuivailala to the Mariners. He posted a lackluster 4.26 ERA in 67 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last year, but his overall body of work as a pro is sharp — as was his work in the 2019 Arizona Fall League. Elledge has averaged nearly a dozen punchouts per nine innings pitched but also saw his walk rate jump in Triple-A last year (19 free passes in 34 1/3 innings). With John Brebbia out until 2021 (Tommy John surgery) and Jordan Hicks set to open the year on the IL while rehabbing his own Tommy John procedure, Elledge gives the Cards some right-handed relief depth.

Kaminsky, 25, was a first-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2013 but was traded to the Indians for Brandon Moss two years later. Things didn’t pan out for Kaminsky there, and after spending parts of five seasons in Cleveland’s minor league ranks, he became a minor league free agent this winter, ultimately landing with the Cards on a minors deal.

A 2017 forearm injury cost Kaminsky the entire year and may have helped prompt a shift to the bullpen. He was quite good as a reliever in Double-A both in 2018 and 2019, but he struggled in the supercharged offensive environment in Triple-A last year (5.11 ERA, 31-to-14 K/BB ratio in 24 2/3 frames). Like Elledge, he’s a non-roster player but could conceivably see some MLB action in 2020 if the Cardinals need to tap into their depth.

Mariners Acquire Sam Tuivailala From Cardinals

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The Mariners have acquired right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala from the Cardinals in exchange for minor league right-hander Seth Elledge, the teams announced Friday. Elledge has been assigned to Double-A Springfield.

Sam Tuivailala | Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

“Sam is in the midst of his second consecutive solid big league season, and has pitched in parts of four Major League seasons but has barely two years of service time,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a press release announcing the move. “We view this as a move for our present and our future.”

It’s another somewhat creative and unexpected trade for a Mariners club that has made a habit of identifying atypical trade candidates in recent seasons in spite of a poor farm system. In Tuivailala, Seattle is adding a 25-year-old righty who is in the midst of a solid season and can be controlled through the 2022 campaign.

Tuivailala, who won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season, has spent his entire career in the Cardials organization since being selected in the third round of the 2010 draft. Dating back to Opening Day 2017, he’s stepped up and established himself as a useful contributor at the MLB level, tossing 74 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 0.85 HR/9 and a 48.4 percent ground-ball rate. He’s averaged 95.3 mph on his fastball over the past two seasons and made positive gains in both swinging-strike rate (from 9.5 percent to 10.1 percent) and chase rate (from 27.9 percent to 29.2 percent) so far in 2018.

While much has been made of the Mariners’ pursuit of rotation help, they’ve also been linked to bullpen upgrades, and Dipoto and his staff have previously prioritized acquiring longer-term assets when trading their own young talent away (e.g. Ryon Healy, James Pazos, Ben Gamel, Mitch Haniger). Tuivailala adds to that trend and gives recently extended manager Scott Servais another option late in games to help bridge the gap from the rotation to All-Star closer Edwin Diaz.

For the Cardinals, the trade of Tuivailala comes as a surprise component to an otherwise highly anticipated shuffling of the team’s pitching staff. President of baseball ops John Mozeliak recently indicated that changes were coming to his roster, specifically as pertains to the ’pen, though given Tuivailala’s remaining club control and general success over the past two seasons, few could’ve reasonably expected him to be a part of the machinations.

That said, in prying Elledge away from the Mariners, the Cards will pick up an intriguing relief prospect who seemingly has more upside than Tuivailala carries. Seattle selected Elledge in the fourth round of last season’s draft, and he’s absolutely torn through Class-A Advanced with the Mariners, working to a 1.17 ERA with 12.7 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.23 HR/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate.

Elledge has been virtually untouchable to Class-A Advanced batters, yielding just 18 hits in 38 1/3 innings of work. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked Elledge 10th among Seattle farmhands on yesterday’s midseason update of each team’s Top 30 lists. The MLB.com duo writes that he sits 93-95 mph with a fastball that features “heavy sink” and is complemented by a slider and changeup — both of which have the potential to be average offerings.

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