The Cardinals are selecting right-hander Roel Ramírez and recalling lefty Brandon Waddell to the big league roster, general manager John Mozeliak told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Righties Jake Woodford and Seth Elledge have been optioned to Triple-A Memphis to clear active roster space. To open a 40-man roster spot for Ramírez, St. Louis is designating first baseman John Nogowski for assignment.
Ramírez went from the Rays to the Cards as part of the 2018 Tommy Pham trade. He made a cameo at the big league level last season, making his MLB debut against the White Sox. It didn’t go well, as Ramírez yielded six runs on as many hits (including a staggering four homers) while recording just two outs. He was designated for assignment before he got another major league opportunity.
The 26-year-old Ramírez has now pitched his way back to the bigs, where he’ll hope to find more success this time around. He’s tossed 27 innings across 18 appearances as a multi-inning reliever with Memphis this year, working to a 4.67 ERA with slightly better than average strikeout (25.2%), walk (7.5%) and groundball (49.3%) numbers.
Woodford has worked in a similar multi-inning relief capacity at the major league level this year. He’s being optioned to build up as a potential starting pitcher, Mozeliak said. In 2019, his last full minor league season as a starter, the 24-year-old tossed 151 2/3 frames of 4.15 ERA ball with Memphis. Woodford’s peripherals that year weren’t especially impressive, and he’s struggled over his MLB time coming out the bullpen. St. Louis has been hit hard by injuries and underperformance in the rotation, though. They’ve scoured the market for potential upgrades, but Woodford will stretch back out as a potential internal option.
Nogowski has picked up 24 plate appearances at the MLB level over the past two years. They’ve not gone well, and the 28-year-old has slumped to a .195/.304/.297 line over 148 trips to the dish in a hitter-friendly Triple-A West environment in 2021. It’s been a difficult season for Nogowski, but he’d previously been a very productive offensive player in the minors. Through parts of seven minor league seasons, Nogowski has compiled a .281/.370/.404 mark, including a .295/.413/.476 line with Memphis in 2019. The Cardinals will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers.
Mozeliak also revealed that St. Louis has released outfielder Matt Szczur from his minor league contract (via Zachary Silver of MLB.com). The 31-year-old hit just .186/.236/.382 in 112 plate appearances with Memphis.
Still won’t help, they need to fire head coach and hitting coach.
You left out the pitching coach. He needs to go too.
I’m hesitant to put the blame for the pitching on the pitching coach. I always thought the pitching staff looked pretty thin on paper, and I’m not all that surprised that the Cardinals are scrambling to find pitching now. The fact that there aren’t enough good pitchers left to make a passable pitching staff doesn’t seem like the fault of the pitching coach, but of the front office. I could be persuaded, but I’d need to see more bad results from truly good players (like the offense, which is bad despite looking pretty damn good on paper) to place the blame on Maddux.
Hesitant to put the blame on the pitching coach? This is the worst coaches pitching stuff in the history of the Major Leagues unless you think it’s a strange coincidence that suddenly none of the pitchers know how to throw a strike anymore. They are nibbling around corners and have no confidence or a really bad approach. Maddox had absolutely got to go. Clean house.
And not Nogowski will become the next league leader in Home Runs.
You left out GM/POBO
the PBO should have been let go long ago.
ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the beer vendor in section 315 needs to go too.
the coaches can’t go out and play the field or pitch or hit. the players have to take responsibility too. However, Albert is highly suspect.
Adding to the scrap heap…..pitching is bad, hitting is abysmal and defense is looking suspect. The ship is sinking! Went to the game yesterday and the most impressive thing there was the storm that blew through. We need some real help before it’s too late.
What’s really bad is if they decide to sell, there really isnt much to sell. Carp, martinez and miller wont bring anything back. They could trade dejong and maybe try to sign a free agent ss this winter. But even dejong is hardcore slumping and they would be selling very low. William’s and thomas could be traded but arent worth anything either. Same for rondon,webb and nogowski. Really a bad situation. Waino and molina would bring something back but the fans would revolt if they were traded.
there’s plenty to sell, goldschmidt and arenado
Arenado has an opt-out after this season, making him difficult to trade, and Goldschmidt is under a fairly hefty contract. Also, if the Cardinals are selling in an effort to improve, those probably aren’t the first two players they’d want to trade. If they decide to go for a total rebuild, sure, they’d be on the block, but both players were acquired to form a solid core that can be competitive for the foreseeable future. Wise or not, that doesn’t make them seem like prime trade candidates.
arenado wouldn’t be any harder to trade than a pending free agent
Full no trades for both of them and you’d have to pay money to trade that contract that Arenado has. There’s 0 chance he opts out of his current contract. It doesn’t even warrant discussion, unless he doesn’t care about losing 30-50 million in contact value.
DeJong should be traded no matter what.
think we could entice the d-backs to take de Jong off our hands for Eduardo Escobar while their in town?
ehh, I’m thinking more Carpenter than DeJong
Ramirez hasn’t performed well at Memphis so I can’t imagine why this is a good move
Maybe they are hoping he does well, so he either helps, or raises his value so he can be traded when the inevitable sell off comes.
Instead of getting a dozen baseballs for him the could get two dozen. Yipee!
Fire Mozo
Everyone. Meet Roel Ramirez, Noe,s brother.
Roel Ramirez’s ERA can only go down from here (unless he gives up 6 runs in 1/3 inning this time).
To take a page out of the book as a life long Cub fan . Wait till next year. Hopefully the starting rotation will be significantly better.
Flaherty
Alex Reyes
Liberatore
Hudson
Mikolas
And just for kicks throw in Mad Max.
This is how you get over it rather than complain about it.
You get over it by saying, “ wait until next year?”
That statement has failed since it’s inception.
A Cubs fan is trying to help us feel better, that helps!
mikolas is gone after this year
His contract says otherwise.
all the moves today are positioning st louis for the coming three weeks. after the arizona series, there are 13 games against san francisco and the cubs. after that, decisions will be made.
So which team will pick up Nogowski and make him the next Arozarena? Why not DFA Carpenter.
yeah it’s definitely time to set Carpenter free, along with their hitting coach, Jeff Albert. And is anyone sick of Martinez as much as I am?♂️
Yes. Hard to watch Martinez every 5th day. Cards have no depth or he would be back to the pen.
Nogowski sucks way more than Carpenter, even at this point.
Alcantara, Gallen and Lynn would look good in the rotation. Oh wait Mo traded two of them with nothing to show now and refused to offer a contract to Lynn
They got two years of Ozuna for Alcantara and Gallen, and made the playoffs in one of those years. He wasn’t what they hoped for, but he was far more than nothing. Saying nothing to show now is…just silly. Also, the Cardinals drafted Alec Burleson with the compensation pick for Ozuna declining their 2020 QO. Burleson is currently putting up this line in AA during his first professional season:
.298/.353/.468
He hit .286/.367/.595 at A+ earlier this year before they moved him up. That’s not nothing. Sure, if they Marlins and Dbacks offered Alcantara and Gallen for Burleson, the Cardinals would take that deal now. But that is not how trades work. You sometimes trade future value for a current need. In 2018, the Cardinals needed a big bat in the OF. Ozuna wasn’t quite the bat they envisioned, but to say they have nothing to show for it is…false.
At least Grichuk, Arozarena and Garcia look good in the outfield. Oh wait , Mo traded two of them with nothing to show on mlb roster and released Garcia.
Wonder what the problem could be?
It is not really the OF the problem. Both O’Neill and Carlson been pretty good at times this year and Bader would’ve, if he can stay off the IL long enough. It is really the starting pitchers walking players the main problem.
Let’s start the movement: “MO must Go” ……
that movement started quite a few years ago
Dude, Adolis was put on waivers and made it through twice. The rangers are kinda crappy and took a chance on him and he’s gotten some nice flukey small sample production. He’s 28 and according to every projection due for massive regression. He didn’t even hit remotely well in the high minors. Same thing with Patrick Wisdom. Who cares?? They’re not likely to continue this over an extended period. Randy A you’ve got an argument. Grichuk is not as good as any of our starting OF (when healthy). He’s the same player he was in STL, solid 4th OF.
On other Cardinal news, Nolan Gorman has been promoted to AAA, Memphis.
I think walker and burleson need promotions too. But that’s about it. Our minors is looking extremely weak, every team is at least 10 games under, especially on the pitching side. Looking at the stats, most of the pitchers have more walks than innings pitched. And most have k walk rates of 1 to 1. Not good. A losing season might be good for their draft order and system as a whole. Clean out the cupboard and start the retool. Makes me wonder if arenado opts out with the way the team looks?
Malcom Nunez is moving to AA Springfield and Jordan Walker is moving to A+ Peoria. The releasing of Nogowski means they are moving up some young stars to the next level.
Pitching is behind because of the Correa draft penalties and the contraction of the minor leagues forcing younger pitchers already a year behind from COVID to higher levels than normal. They’ve got great hitting prospects at every level, but there’s definitely a pitching donut hole in the high minors. There’s 0 reason to blow anything up. This was a transition year and they didn’t invest in the back end of the rotation in FA so they’re paying the price. One losing season in like 15 years is not a reason to nuke it.
Bow tie should be fired first. Mozo has led this team on the road to nowhere.
Except for 2 WS appearances and one title and only one losing season since 2006. Dewitt is the problem and the coaching staff. The talent has been there. It tends to stagnate at the MLB level despite progressing well through the minors. Shildt and co need to go.