St. Louis Cardinals fortify pitching staff in MLB draft, select Oregon State lefty

Sitting with the 22nd overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals opted to use their pick on a player type that’s served them especially well throughout the years, selecting left-handed starter Cooper Hjerpe from Oregon State University.

“I just wanted to say I’m ecstatic to be a part of an organization like this,” Hjerpe said Sunday night on a video call with reporters. “It’s surreal. Words can’t really describe how I’m feeling. It’s something I’ve been dreaming about since I first tried to play the game.”

Hjerpe — the H is silent — struck out 161 batters in 103 1/3 innings pitched for the Beavers this season, allowing only three home runs. At 21 years old, he enters the Cardinals system at a sufficiently advanced age and with enough experience that assistant general manager and director of scouting Randy Flores admitted, “there really is a hope he has a chance to move quick for us.”

“I think that he has tremendous weapons,” Flores said. “His fastball, all the pitches come from a unique angle. They all tunnel very well. We’ve seen his velocity consistently that he maintains. One of the things you look for is stamina in a pitcher, and you look at his workload, what he’s done this year, the bulk that he’s done, we haven’t seen the drop off that you might see in someone who you wonder whether or not they can sustain.”

The Hjerpe repertoire

That unique angle Flores mentioned is part of what sets Hjerpe apart from other pitchers. From a low, nearly sidearm angle, he pairs his fastball with a changeup and slider that each come out from the same arm slot and appear the same to hitters from the hand — a skill that pitchers refer to as “tunneling,” and that hitters think is hard to handle.

“The curveball (was) popping out and I just started throwing that slider,” Hjerpe said. “That tunneling kind of direction was way better and way more consistent, obviously, and it was right from the get go. So just stuck with that, and it’s been paying off.”

Two of the Cardinals’ top picks in 2021 — righties Michael McGreevy (first round, UC Santa Barbara) and Gordon Graceffo (fifth round, Gonzaga) — have already advanced to Double-A Springfield. Graceffo has been discussed internally as a possibility to help the big league club as soon as this season, and both are likely to debut by the end of 2023. Hjerpe is not likely to be far behind.

“I don’t think it’s something particularly unique under my leadership, these last now seven drafts,” Flores said about a proclivity toward college pitchers. “But what I do think is that there’s discipline, and sometimes if someone is good, and scouts think that they’re good, you pull the magnet (with the player’s name) and don’t overthink it.”

More about Hjerpe

Most importantly, Flores praised the process which brought them to Hjerpe, regardless of similarities to their already existing prospect pool.

“You never really want to make a pick because one worked out before, right? That’s a little scary thing,” Flores admitted.

Referencing top prospect Jordan Walker, taken with the club’s first pick in 2020, Flores joked, “or we would have looked for the tallest third baseman with power in the draft and picked him independent of where our process ranked him on our board.”

Hjerpe, who grew up in Northern California, said he was primarily a San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s fan who most enjoys watching New York Mets stars Jacob deGrom (“an animal”) and Max Scherzer (“a psychopath out there”).

‘I just want to go out and play’

As for when Hjerpe might join them in the fraternity of big leaguers, Flores quoted farm director Gary LaRocque in saying, “a player will let you know when he’s ready for the Major Leagues.” There will be benchmarks to meet and an assessment of his innings load to evaluate, and from there, the Cardinals will chart a path which they hope ends with Hjerpe as a contributing member of their big league pitching staff.

“We do believe that, independent of the context of the team, he has both the stamina, the stuff, and the will to start, and that’s a good starting spot,” Flores said.

For his part, Hjerpe said he recently finished up a short period of being shut down for rest after the end of the college season, and that his arm feels more than ready to go.

“If you need me in any spot, I’m ready for it,” Hjerpe said. “And that’s a key thing. I just want to go out and play, whether it’s starting or relieving. I just want the ball.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 9:19 AM.