Aug. 21: The Cardinals announced that Rom has been promoted for his debut. Right-hander Guillermo Zuniga was optioned to Triple-A Memphis to open a spot on the roster.
Aug. 20: The Cardinals are planning to call up left-hander Drew Rom from Triple-A Memphis to start Monday’s game against the Pirates. Matthew Liberatore was initially slated to start that game, but Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told reporters that Libertore will be pushed to Wednesday due to a sore back.
The reshuffled rotation will result in a big league debut for Rom, just three weeks after he joined the St. Louis organization as part of the deadline day trade that sent Jack Flaherty to the Orioles. Rom was briefly called up to the Orioles back in May, but his two-day stint on the active roster didn’t result in any in-game appearances.
The 23-year-old Rom was a fourth-round pick for Baltimore in the 2018 draft, and he has a 4.75 ERA over 134 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. However, he has looked sharp since the trade, allowing just one earned run over 11 innings and two starts with the Cardinals’ top affiliate. This small sample size in Memphis includes an eye-popping 43.9% strikeout rate, which is a marked step up from even the solid strikeout rates Rom has posted throughout his minor league career.
Baseball America ranks Rom as the 15th-best prospect in the St. Louis farm system, noting that his fastball sits in the low-90s. This seems to be his best pitch, as the BA scouting report feels Rom needs to throw his secondary offerings (a splitter and a slider) in the strike zone more frequently and with greater efficiency to make his overall arsenal more dangerous to hitters.
While this might end up being just a spot start for Rom, it is an opportunity to both perhaps earn more innings down the stretch as the Cardinals continue to evaluate players for 2024. Starting pitching is a stated need for the Cards going into the offseason, but even if the front office achieves its goal of adding three new starters, depth is always a necessity, making Rom valuable as a big league-ready starter.
Welcome to The Show, Drew!
Welcome, cowboy!
Not sure what Rom has done that makes him a better choice than McGreevy but whatever.
He doesn’t have a whip above 1.5 in AAA.
Yes he does………look again fella…..
Hopefully you aren’t liking your own comments.
Maybe you should look again. Rom has a whip around .5 in AAA for the Cards. While Mcgreevy has 1.5. The article covered Rom well. You should read it.
And I’m not liking my own comments. Sorry if you get upset people never like yours.
The AAA season didn’t start when Rom was traded a few weeks ago.
Maybe you should look again knucklehead.
His AAA season with the Cards did. And that’s probably what they care about.
So ignore the entire season because he pitched good for 11 innings?
Sounds kinda stupid to me.
Want to know what sounds stupid to me?
Ignoring an entire terrible season by McGreevy and promoting him over another player that just came into your organization and hit the ground running.
Mcgreevy is having a better season than Rom. I didn’t make it up champ. He’s not having a terrible season.
Rom has pitched 11 good innings. Woopty doo.
Keep liking your own comments. You want to say stupid stuff keep being you.
Still not liking my own comments. Why are you so obsessed with likes?
I’m done with you. Almost every take you post on this site is terrible. Maybe if you stopped having terrible takes people might like your comments.
Dude you said Rom was having a better year than McGreevy and that is NOT TRUE AT ALL!!!
You quoted stats from 11 innings he pitched for Memphis and ignored the rest of his stats for the year. That’s dumb as dirt.
Say something that makes sense.
He can’t like his own posts multiple times dimwit man troll you have no data to support your opinion. McGreevy if you paid attention was dropped in prospect rankings DUE TO HIS POOR AAA SEASON!!!! Rom in 11 innings yeah sure but it’s a spot start and good to see what if this success carry’s on. Please you are only the king of dunces!!!
@asdfgh. Without taking into account the 40-man reason which @go1962 pointed out (thanks for that). The fact the cardinals purposefully chose this guy in the trade and he performed well immediately when in their system, at least to me, might show they saw something in him.
Call me crazy, but if the guy you scouted immediately started thriving in your system in the upper minors, you might want to see if your scouting was correct. Rather than toss a prospect that has been pitching terribly in your system all year.
9 ballers and counting. Cry more.
Dont feed the troll…
I suspect the Cardinals promoted Rom over McGreevy because Rom is alrieady on the 40 man roster, while McGreevy is not.
The 40 man means nothing. There are at least 5 guys on the 40 man now that could be released today and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Freaking Palacios is starting in center today. James Naile is on the 40 man. That Lawrence bum the team just picked up.
The 40 man matters if your team is stacked with talent. Not now.
It’s August 20th and they are in second to last place in the NL. The season is over, this is not the time to make 40 man revisions either. Just roll with what you got to get through the season. Hope now one hurts a shoulder.
But you know John Mozeliak is lazy
You know the simplest explanation is that Mcgreevy pitched on the 19th. They need a start on the 21st. That eliminated Mcgreevy immediately.
Does that explanation work for you? Because people made a lot of sense w/ their other reasoning. But that’s pretty indisputable.
Mcgreevy isn’t on the 40 man
What difference does that make?
Wow for going off on someone about who’s better you should definitely know what difference it makes if your on the 40 man roster or not… lol they’d have to move the roster around
DFA James Naile. Put McGreevy on the 40 man.
Is that really that complicating? Of course it isn’t.
The 40 man isn’t overloaded with talent at the moment. When guys like Naile, Lawrence and Suarez are taking up space that means its very easy to add someone else. Because all 3 of those guys are worthless bums who shouldn’t be on the team. They are getting opportunities that could go to guys like McGreevy and Graceffo who have actually earned it and are a part of the Cardinals future.
There’s no need to DFA anyone! Don’t the Cardinals still have at least one opening on the 40-man roster anyway after all the trades? If not, they could’ve simply moved Donovan to the 60-day IL.
While I agree, Rom was instantly added to the 40 Man roster, McCreevy is not… Thus requiring a roster move? Like DFA or a minors assignment or a IL trip? Since they don’t wanna do that Rom is the man for the spot start
DFA Lawrence. Or Naile. Or Suarez. All 3 guys are dumpster fire terrible.
The 40 man is never the issue that people make it out to be.
It is because Rom had to be added to the 40 man based on the status he came over with when traded for. McGreevy has had an ok season, but starting his service clock in a lost season before it’s required to protect him against rule 5 status would be really dumb. Same with Graceffo who has had a lost season due to injury. They need 40 man spots to add free agents and also to account for 60 day DL guys that have to be added after the season. For a guy that clearly doesn’t understand roster machinations, you sure have some strongly held opinions on the subject.
Well, Mcgreevy pitched six innings on the 19th. Then, on the 20th, they realized they were going to need a spot starter on the 21st. Funny that you guys had to argue about this for fifty posts and couldn’t figure that out. They both suck anyway.
Now we are talking baseball, a side effect to losing baseball.
Ahhh, good to see our annual San Diego habits being enjoyed by others… happy to share?
San Diego is a really nice city with fantastic weather and things to do. You can’t have everything man. The St Louis people need this. I live in Colorado now thankfully but trust me they need baseball it’s all they got.
Hey, now. St. Louis had a lot of crack in the 80s and 90s.
Sure, all we’ve got…aside from NHL Hockey, MLS Soccer, XFL Football, a National Park centered around the tallest monument in the country, the largest outdoor theater in the country, a really nice zoo with free admission, a Science Center with free admission, a franchise of the Six Flags theme park, the International Bowling Hall of Fame, etc.
Yeah, all of that is why the city has had a declining population trend since the 1980s. One out of every 14 people is a victim of either a violent crime or a property crime. The murder rate per 1000 people is ten times the national average.
I grew up there and have fond memories of all of the things you mentioned, but let’s not pretend it’s a dream destination.
The crime rates are very misleading due to the separation of the City and the County. When comparing metro areas, the numbers still aren’t very good but are quite a bit better.
Meanwhile, the entire Midwest has had declining population since the 80s or longer. Once again, you have to look at the entire St. Louis Metro Area, which has only had a slight rate of population decrease in that time, while some areas have actually had tremendous growth.
Good move he’s been solid for memphis
Scratch that. He’s been lights out. 2-0 with 11 innings of 0.82 era with 18 strikeouts. Let’s hope some success transfers over
Good luck Drew Rom.
I used to go to school with his brother CD.
the Cards should have traded for Adley, Holliday and Heston instead of this guy
Os fan here. Rom started off his career well and was tracking upwards as you’d hope a HS pitching draftee would. Then, a couple years ago, he stalled. Couple of injuries may have contributed to that. As the article states, he doesn’t really have a separator pitch and is not a high velo guy. So as he got to AA and AAA, he struggled to keep progressing.
The Os have a 40 man roster crunch this off-season to deal with, so I imagine moving Rom was part of trying to alleviate that since he was stagnant development wise over the past couple years.
Last 2 starts in Memphis were eye opening. Sometimes players need a change like this to light the fire. I’ll be keeping an eye on him.
Also of note, Zack Showalter, the guy I was most upset we gave up in the Flaherty deal, is on the IL after his 1st appearance with STL. I’ll also be following his progress.
I’d be surprised if Rom can hack it as a big league starter. The stuff just isn’t there. He’s a crafty lefty though. Sometimes those guys outperform the raw stuff. Good luck, Drew.
He will prob get lit up
I’m looking forward to watching Jack’s replacement until we resign Jack in the off-season.
I’d like to see Monty resigned but Jack hasn’t been good since 2019. So glad they didn’t qualify offer him. It would have been 20 mil down the drain.