On Saturday, I noticed the first major cuts of the spring by a Major League Baseball club. They were the non-descript reassignments to minor league camp of four players, two catchers and two pitchers, made by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
It got me thinking about the sequence of these moves by the St. Louis Cardinals in a typical spring. While last year’s transactions are not a guarantee of this year’s, it seems an interesting effort to take a look back.
Since game dates are different each spring, I will list the Cardinals 2010 spring moves both by the game number they occurred as well as the calendar date.
With minor League pitchers and catchers reporting this year tomorrow, Monday, March 7, one might anticipate the first round of 2011 cuts as soon as later today, Sunday. Last year, the Cardinals had played only three official games prior to that date, but with an earlier start this year, heading into Sunday, St. Louis has already completed seven of its 32 scheduled spring training games.
Note the predominance of 2010 cuts that occurred on Sundays and Mondays. In three consecutive weeks, first catching and pitching NRIs were sent to minor league camp, then around the middle of the month, a group of youngsters were optioned out and by the 20th or thereabouts, the third major trim occurred.
Also note that even after players are officially assigned to minor league camp, they can and will be called back to the major league club to help out in games as needed.
The following table lists the day/date, spring game number of 30, number of 40-man players still in camp, number non-roster invitees in camp and the detailed transactions themselves from last spring as the Cardinals went from 58 players down to their opening day 25.
St. Louis Cardinals major league spring training transactions – 2010
| In camp | Game | 40-man | NRI | Cardinals major league transactions |
| (of 30) | ||||
| Open | 38 | 19 | ||
| Fri 2/26 | 39 | 19 | IF Felipe Lopez signed | |
| Sun 3/7 | #4 | 39 | 9 | Minor league camp opens 3/8 – 10 NRIs reassigned |
| Cs Charles Cutler, Tony Cruz, Steven Hill, Robert Stock | ||||
| IFs Daniel Descalso, Donovan Solano, Pete Kozma | ||||
| OF Tyler Henley, Ps Charlie Zink, Sam Freeman | ||||
| Mon 3/15 | #12 | 33 | 9 | Optioned C Bryan Anderson, 1B Mark Hamilton, OF Daryl Jones, |
| OF Shane Robinson, P Tyler Norrick, P Francisco Samuel | ||||
| Thu 3/18 | #14 | 32 | 9 | First minor league games |
| R5 P Ben Jukich returned to Reds | ||||
| Sun 3/21 | #18 | 31 | 6 | Optioned P Josh Kinney, reassigned NRI Ps Lance Lynn, |
| Evan MacLane, early invite P Shelby Miller | ||||
| Mon 3/22 | #19 | 30 | 1 | Optioned C Matt Pagnozzi, reassigned NRIs IF Ruben Gotay, |
| Ps Eduardo Sanchez, Oneli Perez, Fernando Salas, Pete Parise | ||||
| Fri 3/26 | #22 | 28 | 1 | Optioned IF Tyler Greene, OF Jon Jay |
| Sat 3/27 | #23 | 27 | 1 | Optioned P Adam Ottavino |
| Tue 3/30 | #26 | 27 | 0 | NRI P Rich Hill reassigned |
| Thu 4/1 | #28 | 26 | 0 | Traded SS Julio Lugo to Baltimore |
| Fri 4/2 | #29 | 25 | 0 | Optioned P P.J. Walters |
40-man roster players are optioned out while non-roster invitees are assigned to the minor leagues. Note that in 2010, an unusual situation occurred in that no NRIs made the team out of camp. That may not be the case in 2011 as non-roster players including veterans Miguel Batista and Ramon Vazquez and youngsters Lance Lynn and Brandon Dickson are among those making their bids to come north with the Cardinals.
The Cardinal Nation subscribers should be sure to check out my recent four-part series looking at the NRI situation in depth.
”Cardinals Veteran NRI Spring History: 2005-10”
”Handicapping the 2011 Cards NRIs: Veterans”
”Handicapping the 2011 Cards NRIs: Prospects”
“Making Room for the Cards NRIs: Outrighting”
Reminder: To track all the 2011 signings, releases and other major roster moves across the entire Cardinals system, check out the Roster Matrix right here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.
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A different topic that Brian’s essay above…..it will be interesting to see how many minor league players have to be let go this spring. This year, there will not be a squad in Venezuela, about 30 less roster slots for the entire system. Roster space competition is going to be intense, at all rungs. Its understandable why the Birds did not sign a lot of minor league free agents.
Years back, a vet like Miguel Batista would have been a strong candidate to make the roster. He is still a pretty strong candidate, but the Cards also have so many pitchers coming up at AAA and AA, they have choices. Also Raul Valdes and Ian Snell will not have an easy time making the Memphis roster.
Tomorrow’s post will look at timing of minor league roster cuts in the past. I will then tackle making a rough shot at the numbers as you suggest.
Darryl Jones, DeJesus, bonus babes Ryde Rodriguez and Ottavino, among others, are probably going to have to win roster slots.
Agreed. A considerable number of tough decisions are ahead.
Upward movement from the farm contributes to explaining the trade of Brendan Ryan for a class A thrower. This trade makes room for Tyler Greene and allows Pete Kozma and Ryan Jackson also to move up a rung.
While the two points are true, there is not cause and effect as implied. Brendan Ryan was replaced as the starting shortstop by the acquisition of Ryan Theriot, not by a farm product.
Now, one can expect that Aaron Miles may be replaced by a prospect unless Ramon Vazquez wins a job. Another farm product will apparently sit in for Nick Punto temporarily. That could be Greene and Descalso.
Bottom line, when everyone is healthy, there will likely be one reserve infielder spot that moved from a veteran last year to a younger player this year. As you note, that should offer room for others to move up. But also remember the Cardinals not only signed Vazquez, but also Freddie Bynum and have Jose Martinez coming back. Then, there is Solano and Jose Garcia among the others in the Memphis-Springfield middle infield mix…
Back to your earlier point of having decisions ahead….
Is there any info about whether instructs is gone for good, or what? Could that, and eliminating one of the ss squads be related in some way, a re-thinking of the system for evaluating and developing youngsters, for instance? Is the elimination of the VSL squad the doing of the new minor league director? I’m in the dark about that sort of thing.
No one is saying instructs is gone forever, nor will they commit it is coming back. With the changes in the minor league hierarchy in and out of uniform, I will be watching this carefully. We probably won’t know until August.
The problems in Venezuela are bigger than baseball. Read this to get more background.
Details on first nine cuts of the spring, including Shelby Miller, now posted on the main site.
Just part of the process, correct? Your thoughts, Brian: Miller starts at PMB or SPR this year? There’s quite a log jam of hurlers potentially at PMB and QC. I was thinking Miller could take advantage of this, or is the Antique Fine China drill with him, still?
ughhhhh, sorry I used potentially twice in sentence, wish I knew how to edit
Miller told me in January that Springfield is his goal. Last year, Palm Beach was his goal and the Cards were conservative. I wouldn’t be surprised either way, but I would guess a split season with a mid year promotion may be the way they’ll go.
I would imagine they cut him from camp this quickly because they need to give starts to the guys competing for number five.
Sorry about that, but my theme doesn’t seem to allow user editing of posts. I took out one “potentially” for you though…
TLR establishes patterns and follows them. Like last year, 4 extra catchers, plus Solano are among the first to move to where they will play.
Yes, at this point, they are going to need those catchers more in minor league camp.