Called up in a pinch, rookie Yepez hopes to make most of chance with St. Louis Cardinals

Juan Yepez had an eventful Tuesday.

After bashing his ninth home run of the season for Triple-A Memphis in the seventh inning of their afternoon home game, Redbirds manager Ben Johnson stopped the rookie slugger from taking his position at third base in the top of the ninth.

“They said it’s OK, it’s gonna be good,” Yepez explained through a permanent smile Wednesday morning.

And for him, it was.

With the Cardinals amid an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in their traveling party, shortstop Edmundo Sosa was placed on the injured list without a designation. Yepez, who was active for but did not appear in last season’s Wild Card game in Los Angeles, got the call up to the active roster for the first time in the regular season.

He was thrust immediately into the action as a potential spark for a misfiring offense, batting fifth and playing right field in Wednesday’s rescheduled matinee.

“It’s a dream come true to be here and be surrounded by so many Hall of Famers,” he said, nodding to Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and others. “I just want to learn, because you can learn a lot in this game every day, and I just want to learn from the best.”

It was Pujols’s arrival in spring training which effectively heralded Yepez’s departure to the minors, as the once and present St. Louis legend became the primary designated hitter against lefties and the backup at first base. It was Pujols, too, who took care to send Yepez encouraging text messages during the season’s first month, checking in on his progress and his state of mind.

And it was Pujols who was the first to greet Yepez when he arrived in the clubhouse Wednesday morning, wrapping him in a warm hug before Yepez even had a chance to set down his bag of equipment.

Bad travel luck for Yepez

That greeting might have come on Tuesday night if not for a stretch of bad travel luck. In order to get to Kansas City from Memphis, Yepez was booked on a flight which had a connection in Washington, D.C. That connection was canceled, leaving Yepez stranded in the nation’s capital for a night and placed on the earliest possible flight to Kansas City on Wednesday morning.

“I was, like, really mad,” Yepez said of his wiped out flight, no longer displaying even a hint of anger. “But, you know, God has a plan for us, for everybody, and that happened for a reason. Then we just keep going and trust Him (now that) I’m here.”

A couple hours’ wait would’ve saved him some of that grief. Catcher Ali Sánchez and reliever Jake Walsh were recalled to the team’s taxi squad in order to provide additional roster protection after Yepez was already on his way.

They had a separate connection — in Indianapolis — and they made it to Kansas City on Tuesday in time for a good night’s sleep in the team hotel.

It’s Walsh’s first time being recalled to the big leagues, and he’s been dominant for Memphis, turning in six saves in six opportunities and a 0.82 ERA in nine appearances.

‘I just want to stay’

If it’s strange for Walsh to be called up without yet being able to pitch, he wasn’t sharing any hint of those feelings.

“I’ll clean the toilets if I need to,” he quipped. “I just want to stay.”

Walsh said his family hadn’t yet made the decision whether to travel from their home near Orlando, Florida, to San Francisco in case he’s officially called up and has the chance to make his debut. Yepez didn’t have to deal with that uncertainty and his fiancee, brother, and sisters-in-law traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, and Milwaukee to see him debut. His parents, in his native Venezuela, are bound to San Francisco for the weekend series.

For a team with two runs spread over 18 innings in consecutive games against the hapless Royals, Yepez both has and represents a clear opportunity. Even as the volume of the clamoring for top prospect Nolan Gorman grows louder, Yepez’s handedness, even-keeled demeanor, and pre-existing 40-man roster spot all contributed to his being given first crack at providing a spark.

‘It’s the same game’

The Cardinals are confident he won’t make more of the moment than is necessary, and Yepez is confident his time has come.

“I’ll just try to breathe and try to be myself,” Yepez said of his approach to his first time at the plate. “It’s the same game. That’s what I keep telling myself.

“At those moments, I’m just trying to do the same thing, and I don’t need to prove how good I am to anyone because I’m already good enough for God. So that’s .... what I tell myself every day.”

That’s what he had to tell himself to walk his blocked path from the minors to the majors. Now, he has every opportunity to keep the path clear.

This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 2:06 PM.