The St. Louis Cardinals movement toward a more youthful roster escalates. A year after 11 new players made their major league debut, the 2009 campaign will begin with two more.
As the 25-man opening day roster was set with the assignment of outfielder Joe Mather to Triple-A Memphis on Thursday, it means a total of three non-roster invitees (or NRIs) have made the team. They will be added to the club’s 40-man roster prior to Monday’s opening day game and the total on the 40-man will increase to 37 players in the process.
The three new additions are outfielder Colby Rasmus (pictured) and infielders David Freese and Joe Thurston. When they first take the field in Busch Stadium early in the week, the former two will be making their MLB introductions. Thurston, the “veteran” of the three, is 29 years old, but has just 66 career big league at-bats.
This is the highest number of NRIs to make the team in the last five years. Back in 2004, it was different as all three of the NRI additions that year had previous MLB experience, outfielder Ray Lankford, back for one last run, catcher Cody McKay, the first base coach’s son and second baseman-for-a-year Tony Womack, who like the others came to camp on a make-good minor league deal.
Since Tony La Russa arrived on the St. Louis scene in 1996, there was actually one year, 2003, when four NRIs came north with the Cardinals. Only one of the four, Kiko Calero, was a rookie though.
What makes the 2009 group so interesting to me is that the two farm NRI players made their way onto the team, Rasmus and Freese. This is the most in 11 years, tying the 1997 and 1998 teams for the largest quantity of such players in the La Russa era. Since Tony first joined the Cardinals, they have averaged only one such new NRI addition every two years.
| 2009 | Avg | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | |
| NRI | 26 | 21 | 29 | 19 | 23 | 20 | 24 | 23 | 20 | 22 | 26 | 18 | 16 | 12 | 14 |
| NRI made 25-man | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First MLB action | 2 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
For the record, in 1997, the pair of newbies added to the roster were pitcher Matt Morris and Rule 5 outfielder Miguel Mejia. The next year, the two were pitchers Cliff Politte and Braden Looper. All except Mejia went on to have long major league careers. Looper remains active.
Now, here is the breakdown of all 26 NRIs in Cardinals camp this spring. This is the first spring in the La Russa years that as few as one MLB veteran pitchers or position players were brought into camp as NRIs that did not make the team. That was catcher Justin Knoedler, given no chance to make the MLB roster. Instead he was pegged for veteran insurance at Memphis, but ended up being released. Thurston was the other such veteran NRI and as noted, will be on the roster.
I don’t know what could be more of an indication of the organization’s turn toward youth.
| 2009 | NRI made 25-man (3) | Veteran pitcher cut | Veteran hitter cut (1) | Rookie pitcher cut (14) | Rookie hitter cut (3) | Extra catchers (5) |
| David Freese * | none | Justin Knoedler | Tyler Herron | Allen Craig | Bryan Anderson | |
| Joe Thurston | Clayton Mortensen | Jon Jay | Tony Cruz | |||
| Colby Rasmus * | Ian Ostlund | Brett Wallace | Luis De La Cruz | |||
| * 1st MLB action | Adam Ottavino | Steven Hill | ||||
| Fernando Salas | Matt Pagnozzi | |||||
| Francisco Samuel | ||||||
| Jess Todd | ||||||
| P.J. Walters | ||||||
| Brad Furnish | ||||||
| Katsuhiko Maekawa | ||||||
| Shaun Garceau | ||||||
| Justin Fiske | ||||||
| Trey Hearne | ||||||
| Hyang-Nam Choi |
Supporting information
For the corresponding details on how all of the NRIs in camp each spring in recent years played out, reference my post from February 15, entitled “Cardinals non-roster invitees – an update”.
For the specifics on all first-year players to have worn the Cardinals uniform since 1996, check out the article, “Cardinals first-year players and rookies – 1996–2008”.
While other players made their debuts to start the season, the majority of them were already on the club’s 40-man roster. By default, all these players receive an “automatic” spring training invitation.
Organizations are reluctant to add players to the 40-man roster until absolutely necessary because there are limits on the number of years a player can be sent down and back up to the majors again without risk of losing the player.
In addition, once the player arrives in the majors, he begins to inch closer to becoming arbitration-eligible, therefore increasing his salary, as well as starting his journey toward free-agency at six years of major league service.
The details behind options (sending a player down) and outrighting (removing a player from the 40-man roster) are complicated. In a four-part series on Scout.com several years ago, I went into these subjects in great detail. Part one, which provides the basics, is free. (Parts two, three and four are subscriber content.)
If all goes well, Motte, Rasmus, and Kinney should stick all season. Freese might not have made the squad, save for Glaus’ injury, providing him a rare opportunity that he would do well to take utmost advantage of. Thurston was a minor league free agent and seems the 25th guy on the roster, this year’s Rico Washington, vulnerable to demotion if the Cards need to call up a right swinging OF.
IIRC, there were just two minor league free agent vets recruited this past off-season, each for specific reasons. Backup catcher is always an early personnel priority; the Cards’ re-up’d LaRue and recruited Knoedler to backup at Memphis. It turned out that Pagnozzi was better defensively than Knoedler, so the latter was given his freedom.
The only other minor free agent was Thurston. In retrospect, it is clear what the Cards did. They found a left-swinging AAAA 2bman, thereby helping them say goodbye to Adam Kennedy. Thurston is depth in the event of injury to Schumacker, saving about $1.5MM+ versus a veteran backup middle infielder.
I was skeptical of Freese when the Cards obtained him in the Edmonds trade. Some California league (high A) stadiums are hitter friendly, so hitters rack up gaudy stats that they cannot sustain at higher levels. It must be that Lake Elsinore, the Padres’ entry in this league, has a deep power alley to LF, which suppressed Freese’s stats in 2007. Its surprising for a guy to jump over AA and excel as a hitter at Memphis (the least generous park in the PCL), but Freese pulled off this rare feat.
Freese began at the University of Missouri, gave up ball for a year, transferred to Meramec CC where he played 2 years, then went to S. Alabama where he was a team-mate of PJ Walters for 2 years. If the Cards were scouting PJ, they would have noticed the best hitter on the team too, Freese. In the 06 draft, the Cards selected U-Cal senior Allen Craig in round 8, just before the Padres selected Freese, similar players. The Cards probably liked Freese too and so when the Edmonds deal came up, sought Freese.
You are right about Knoedler, Jumbo. Though he was recruited for Memphis as you note, he is an MLB veteran as is Thurston. I will move him over to be more accurate.
If Freese contributes usefully in 2009, he will become another of many examples that drafting a college senior can provide reasonable value. Freese has spent just 2.5 years as a pro, but already has one year at AAA under his belt. Mature, experienced collegiates can move up the minor league ladder quickly. Anthony Reyes was another example, Allen Craig and Mortensen two more. Seniors command lower bonuses, because teams have the upper hand in negotiations. So they may not get a lot of buzz and be highly acclaimed in prospect lists. But if they can play, the Cards can use them.
What, exactly, is “Extended Spring Training”? and Who’s there?
What coaches are there, pitching, hitting, defense?
Is there a work schedule?
Like … up at 6 a.m. for weight-lifting; running 7:00-7:30;
drills from 8:00 – noon; organized games in the afternoon; film after supper?
(If that’s not the schedule, wouldn’t it be a good one! ha!)
Thanks, in advance, for any help!
Jumbo,
Joe Thurston is a more highly developed player than Rico Washington,
Big Chief thinks he will last with the big boys all season.
He has a decent glove at second , runs well and can hit . Hopefully he will also be valuable occasionally at third.
In recent years, Schumaker and Ryan would get sent down, illustrating the scarcity of roster slots. Toolsy athletes Chris Perez and Joe Mather are having to begin this season at AAA. Barden, Thurston, Ryan, Thompson, and McClellan will have to perform from the get go, because otherwise their roster will be given to someone else.
Definitely the names you listed and others will have to be consistent , productive players from the get go . You are right, Mather and Perez will be banging on the door to the 25 man sooner rather than later.
ArRedbird, the best way to think about EST is that it is just like ST, with some different players added to the mix.
Just as in ST, JC manager Mike Shildt runs the camp, with all of the short-season coaches and coordinators doing their thing. The teams, typically called Red, White and Blue, play the Marlins, Mets and each other, but the games are at 10 a.m. instead of 1 p.m..
If you are a Scout.com subscriber, you can read this article from when I visited EST last spring. In this subscriber interview, Shildt explains EST in detail.
I will correct my earlier statement in this thread that the Cards only recruited Knoedler and Thurston in the minor league vet category. This only overlooked Ostlund, Ring, Manning, a southpaw from Japan, and K. Linares, 5 lefties. There was also an RHP from Korea (already gone). Ostlund, Ring, and Manning were terrible against the Cards last night.
It seems possible the Cards will need to sign some older free agent pitchers during the course of the 2009 season to backfill promotions and injuries at AA and AAA. (Maybe we can get Maroth and Clement back to help Memphis.)
You are on a different point than I, though both are valid. I was considering MLB vets as minor league filler while you are considering minor league vets. Different ways to plug gaps.
Ring and Manning are both on the 40-man roster, at least for now. They were not NRIs.
Not to muddy the waters, but perhaps it is sometimes possible to make too much of administative classifications. Put another way, does it matter whether Ring and Manning are on the 40 man or not? We chose to put them there, in part perhaps because we had plenty of spare capacity and in Ring’s case it encouraged him to get off the fence. Both seem fringy talents who likely could be removed from the 40 man at any time. Are they qualitatively different from Knoedler or Thurston? All 4 seem AAAA guys, in mid to late 20s, who have had difficulties establishing themselves in the majors.
We used to try out some “post-prime-established-ML-vets” in their 30s like Deivi Cruz and Jeff Nelson. We did not round up such suspects this winter. We did round up some AAAA suspects for specific personnel needs: loogies, backup AAA catcher, candidate ML 2Bman.
Although the system has a lot of pitchers, many are in EST and A level. if there are injuries and promotions at AA/AAA/ML, then we may need to sign some unemployed older pitchers this summer. The Cards have been making good progress toward a 100 percent homegrown staffing of the minor leagues. It seems like AA/AAA pitching depth could become a little thin, since Kelvin Jimenez, Luis Perdomo, Mark Worrell and Luke Gregerson have moved on.