There is a major change in the roster in St. Louis, as the Cardinals prepare to welcome two of the game’s top potential players to the major leagues in the coming days. As first reported by Derek Gould of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter links), the team upgraded both Nolan Gorman And Matthew Liberator For this weekend’s series against the pirates. Katie Wu from Athletic Tweets that player Tyler O’Neill Heading to the 10-day casualty list due to right shoulder impingement in one of the corresponding list movements.
According to Gold, Gorman will be in the starting lineup tomorrow at second base. This number will be his primary role going forward, with the second Gold Glove captain tommy addiction Kick to the other side of the bag. Edman has been excellent this season, but the Cards haven’t gotten much production from their short stopping points. Paul Dejong Suffered enough, the team took him to Triple-A Memphis last week, apparently setting the stage for Gorman’s next promotion.
That’s not to say the Cardinals hurriedly promoted Gorman to make up for their struggles at the Major League level — far from it. The left-footed hitter made his way into the big business with a stunning display in Memphis. Over 147 board appearances, he made .308/.367/.677 with an amazing 15 home runs. No other Triple-A mix has more than 13 round trips, and only the Cubs Rubel Garcia He has a higher slow rate in the international league.
Gorman’s production was not completely without problems, he was hit 50 times. That’s a 34% cut-off, which is an alarming rate for any junior rider given the high quality of advice he’ll encounter in the majors. In the end, however, Gorman’s power production became too much for the front office in St. Louis to ignore.
It was a much-anticipated debut for Cardinals fans, who have been anticipating Gorman’s arrival since he was selected with the 19th pick in the 2018 draft from an Arizona high school. Being a strong third hitter as an amateur, he almost fulfilled these expectations while in the palace. Gorman constantly posted huge numbers from the extra base while running high hit totals. Potential evaluators raised some concerns about the amount of swing and miss in his game, but were unanimously hasty in their praise of his strength.
FanGraphs, ESPN’s Keith McDaniel, Athletic’s Keith Law and Baseball America have named Gorman among the game’s top 60 potential players in another season. (Lu and McDaniel both put it in the top 20.) That was before a barrage of home stampedes this season, which has only taken the 22-year-old’s level even further. Gorman has kicked to the cornerstone of the palace with Nolan Arenado Steady in the third rule. He is not seen as an elite defender and would certainly be a dip to Edman there, but the hope is that his attacking abilities will more than make up for any problems on the other side of the ball.
Not to be outdone, Gorman’s teammate in the draft will make his major league debut a day later. Liberator coach Oliver Marmol confirmed to reporters:Woo . link). The captain said it remains to be determined whether there will be more than one stepping stone for the 22-year-old. Regardless, the Liberatore is now lined up in the majors indicating that it is solidly on the Regulatory Depth of Circulation chart.
The Liberatore was also by chance a first-round recruit from a Phoenix-area high school that same year as Gorman, and the two had been childhood friends. Regarded as one of the best prep arms in that year’s class, he dropped to Rays in 16th overall due to concerns about his signing bonus – which eventually came to just $3.5 million. While Liberatore’s fastball sat in the low ’90s, he garnered praise for his secondary performances, particularly the curve ball that denizens consider his best playground. He did well in his first season as well as the lower levels of the Tampa Bay Farm System, then participated in January 2020 Iqbal that sent Randy Arosarina Back to Tampa Bay.
The cancellation of the 2020 minor league season prevented the Liberator from making its official debut with the Cardinals until last year. The organization pushed him straight to Memphis on his 21-year-old campaign and held his own, throwing 124 2/3 innings from 4.04 balls with a solid 23.7% hit rate and an excellent walk percentage of 6.3%. St. Louis commissioned him to get back there for this season’s opener, and he’s made strides in terms of swing and miss. The Liberatore’s ERA and walk rate are fully in line with his marks in 2021, but he has improved his strike rate by nearly five points during his first seven starts.
Most assessors also consider the Liberatore one of the top 100 talents in the minor league. He was not seen as a strong player in the future, but between his excellent control and good arsenal, he was unanimously seen as a potential champion for the rotation. It’s not clear if the Cardinals immediately associate him with that role, but it seems likely that he’ll take the ball every fifth day in St. Louis before long.
Neither Gorman nor Liberator will have significant service time in the league this year to reach the one-year threshold. Even if both players are in the majors forever, neither will be eligible for free agency until after the 2028 campaign at the earliest. both players be Well positioned to reach early refereeing as the Super Two qualifiers after the 2024 season, although this is contingent on remaining in the major leagues from now on. In the case of the Liberatore, in particular, it appears that future optional assignments are still a possibility.
cards for her Adam WainwrightAnd Stephen MatzAnd Dakota HudsonAnd Miles Micholas And Jordan Hicks Basically starting from five at the moment. Wainwright and Micholas were excellent. Matz has struggled but won’t bump into a rotation two months into a four-year contract. Hudson doesn’t have great hitting and walking marks, but he drives his perfect ball production to good results. This is also true to some extent for Hicks, who has long extended into rotation after a few years as a strong arm of high leverage.
Of course, St. Louis has been without his best pitcher the entire season. Jack Flaherty He didn’t throw the pitch due to a shoulder problem that required an injection of platelet-rich plasma. He was on the injured list for 10 days all year, and the club announced that he was transferred to 60 Days IL to make room for Gorman on the 40-player roster.
This is just a procedural step that will keep Flaherty out for two months from opening day. The 26-year-old hasn’t embarked on a minor rehab stint in the league and certainly wasn’t ready to return to MLB before the first week of June anyway. Flaherty has recently made headway in throwing Bullpen sessions, so it seems reasonable that he could be in the minor league games in a few weeks.
The club will also need to create a place in the 40-man squad for the Liberatore, as the deal is set to happen ahead of Saturday’s competition. Aside from Flaherty, St. Louis has no clear candidates for a 60-day IL conversion, so it seems likely that someone will be set for appointment within the next couple of days.
The only disappointing aspect of today’s news is that O’Neill is heading to IL. He’s missed the last few days battling shoulder pain that will now cost him at least a week and a half. The team gave no indication of whether he was facing an absence longer than the task minimum.
So the tough start to the year continues for O’Neill, who is just a season removed from eighth place in the NL MVP vote. The 26-year-old only made .195/.256/.297 with a pair of home runs across 133 board appearances, and wasn’t even close to the 34 Homer production he put out last season. O’Neill, who also He lost the judging session Last week, he’ll try to get back on track whenever he’s healthy enough to get back in.
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