St. Louis Cardinals shuffle roster as they prepare to return to action from COVID quarantine
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak which left the team stranded in Milwaukee for six days, the St. Louis Cardinals took the field at Busch Stadium on Wednesday afternoon for a workout designed to shake loose muscles left constrained after most of a week in isolation.
They also announced a series of roster moves which were designed to maximize pitching flexibility and offer relief to a staff which has gone from strength to strained.
Righty Alex Reyes and lefty Génesis Cabrera were recalled from the alternate training site at Springfield, and the club purchased the contract of right-handed reliever Roel Ramirez. Infielder Max Schrock was also purchased, and infielder Brad Miller was reinstated Tuesday from the 10-day injured list (right ankle bursitis).
Infielder Rangel Ravelo was placed on the IL on Wednesday, joining pitchers Junior Fernández, Carlos Martínez, and Kodi Whitley, catcher Yadier Molina, and infielders Paul DeJong and Edmundo Sosa.
Of the seven players placed on the injured list, all except for Martínez have publicly acknowledged that they tested positive for COVID-19. The Cardinals have said that seven players received positive tests while in Milwaukee.
The roster machinations required to field a full team were made somewhat easier by the reduction in active roster spots from 30 to 28 which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. Various media reports on Tuesday indicated that 28 is expected to remain the full roster threshold for the remainder of the season, rather than decreasing to 26 as was previously planned.
Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, and Dakota Hudson remain in the team’s starting rotation, as they have been since the start of the season. The trio will pitch in that order against the Chicago Cubs this weekend at Busch Stadium as the Cardinals play for the first time in nine days.
With Martínez’s placement on the IL, Kwang Hyun Kim will move to the rotation from the back of the bullpen. Kim, who almost exclusively pitched as a starter in Korea, is set to have his first Major League start on Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’ll be followed by Daniel Ponce de Leon, who started the team’s most recent game in Minnesota last Wednesday.
“Clearly we’re short another guy and (Kim) had more than the opportunity to prove himself to be in the starting rotation,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “Give Ponce a crack, he earned his spot and was built up and didn’t want to disrupt the bullpen a whole lot. But have another opportunity in the starting rotation and take advantage of the pause we’ve had and get him back into the rotation and be able to help stabilize it.”
Shildt did not commit to a single individual taking over for Kim as closer, but did name Ryan Helsley twice before also mentioning Andrew Miller, Giovanny Gallegos and Tyler Webb.
Tommy Edman, who has started at third base in each of the team’s first five games, will become the starting shortstop. Matt Carpenter, who has been the designated hitter for four of those five games, will split time at third base and designated hitter with Miller.
Each team’s taxi squad is also set to expand from three to five players for a road trip; the Cardinals said Wednesday that catcher José Godoy would join the club on its scheduled trip to Chicago next week. Godoy was with the team during its workout Wednesday, and Shildt confirmed that Godoy’s taxi squad designation would also allow him to serve as a bullpen catcher for home games.
The decision to keep 15 pitchers on the active roster even as it shrank by two spots meant that outfielder and top prospect Dylan Carlson, who could provide a shot in the arm to an offense which has mustered only four runs in its last three games, did not yet earn his first call to the big leagues.
“I think Dylan’s proven and shown what he can do,” Shildt said when asked if Carlson needed to do more to prove his readiness. “We’re comfortable and confident about what Dylan can do. The fact of the matter is, there’s not a need for Dylan at the moment. But there’s nothing Dylan needs to do except go play and stay sharp.”
Prior to Wednesday’s moves, the Cardinals’ 40-man roster as published by Major League Baseball listed 39 players, including pitchers John Brebbia and Miles Mikolas, who are each out for the season with arm injuries. The Cardinals announced on July 23rd that Brebbia had been placed on the 45-day injured list and thus removed from the 40-man, but multiple MLB publications still showed him among that group.
The additions of Ramirez and Schrock required two 40-man roster spots to be free. MLB allows for players who are placed on the COVID-related IL to be removed from a team’s 40-man roster and 60-man pool, but they must be re-added to those groups when healthy and available to play.
Any players removed from those groups for reasons other than placement on the COVID IL are subject to the same roster restrictions as during a standard season, including a waivers process which could see a player lost to another team.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 3:16 PM.
