The Cardinals announced that they have signed infielder/outfielder Ryan Vilade to a minor league contract. The Icon Sports Management client also receives a non-roster invite to major league spring training.
Vilade, 26 in February, has some slivers of major league experience. He got into three games for the 2021 Rockies and then 17 games for the 2024 Tigers. He has a .157/.200/.216 batting line in 56 plate appearances in the big leagues. He was outrighted by Detroit at the end of the season and elected free agency.
Those numbers are obviously not impressive, but it’s also a tiny sample size and the Cards are surely looking more at his minor league track record. He got into 108 Triple-A games in 2024, slashing .278/.346/.449 for a 105 wRC+ in his 442 plate appearances at that level. He also stole 20 bases while lining up defensively at all three outfield spots and the three non-shortstop infield positions.
Vilade also has a bit of prospect pedigree, as he was a second-round pick of the Rockies in 2017. He hit well in the lower levels of the minors in the early stages of his professional career, getting ranked by Baseball America as one of Colorado’s top ten prospects from 2018 to 2022. But he didn’t hit much at the Triple-A level in 2021 or 2022, so the Rockies put him on waivers. The Pirates put in a claim and ran him through waivers, with Vilade then going on to have another lackluster Triple-A season in 2023.
He was able to elect free agency going into 2024 and signed a minor league deal with the Tigers. As mentioned, he didn’t do much in his brief major league time but got back on track a bit at the Triple-A level, enough to intrigue the Cardinals.
St. Louis is planning for 2025 to be a reset year, where they will be more focused on upgrading their player development pipeline than on short-term contention. As such, it’s possible that they could consider trades of players with limited long-term value. Nolan Arenado seems like he could be on the move since he is turning 34 and wants to play for a contender. Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar have three years of club control left and are plausible candidates to be available. Nolan Gorman still has four years of club control remaining but seems to have fallen out of favor with the Cards, making him a change of scenery candidate. Paul Goldschmidt is already gone via free agency.
Vilade’s ability to play multiple positions means that he could take up some of the playing time that might shake loose as the club shuffles the roster. If he gets a roster spot at any point, he still has one option year remaining and only has a few days of service time, meaning he can potentially be cheaply retained into the future.
Cards 3rd baseman 2025 Ouch
The apparent replacement for soon to be non-cardinal nolan arenado, honestly…WAYYYYY better than arenado.
I really don’t know how to respond to the depth of your stupidity! Arenado is going to the HOF. And still is a great!!!! player
Usuably
I ignore insanity but for once I am spending my time responding. You are embarressment.
You need to use something like [/sarcasm] when using sarcasm in text if you don’t want people like Spudchukar to mistake it for a serious post.
This is exactly the same type of players Mozeliak has picked up over the past 8 years of off season trades and acquisitions!!
Thus he has killed the Cardinals Franchise during that period of time.
His limited MLB numbers suggest he won’t get called on for golden at-bats.
hopefully no one will ever be called on golden at-bats
Low level depth. I seriously doubt he makes it to the Cardinals roster.
Does anyone else just look at 2010’s MLBTR articles and just reply to everyone telling them how the move panned out?
Gorman is the Arenado replacement.
Heaven forbid!
You mean Walker?
Gorman —— is “only a potential 30 home run man”!! However he’s a definite 175+ strikeout man”!!! In his case —- the Definite’s out weigh the Potential’s!!
He needs to be traded to a team who thinks they may be able to turn him into a contact hitter ——then the Cardinals “Might” be able to get something for him!!!
Just Gorman’s Rally Killing Strikeouts makes Gorman a total liability on Offense for any Team.
And everyone thought the Cardinals wouldn’t be competitive in 25. They will be rethinking that decision after this signing!
(Yes I’m being facetious)
Now the articles have the Cardinals moving Gorman, Donovan and Nootbar. When will this stuff end.
Gorman has some work to do but I wouldn’t say he has fallen out of favor lol…the cardinals have 4 years and third base might be open soon…his original position…so yea I think he is way off myself
Isn’t 3rd base Walker’s original position at Memphis???
If he gets back to his solid contact hitting —- the Cardinals will need to find him a defensive position where Walker will hurt them the least!!!
Since when is three years of control not long term value, especially when the Cardinals definitely plan to be serious contenders again by that point?!
Can’t get anything for Gorman. Nootbar only needs a full season, to show his worth. Donovan is an all-star.
I agree totally with your analogy of Gorman, Nootbar and Donovan!!!
Gorman has got to be wrapped in a trade where the Cardinals could possibly get something in return.
Singularly — you’re right —- Gorman is worthless in a trade!
This will continue as long as John Mozeliak and any of his current associates are affiliated with the Cardinals Franchise!!
Unfortunately—- there has got to be some ownership member or members who have been involved with Mozeliak in this intentional 8 year destruction of this Cardinals Historic Franchise….. “Or!” Mozeliak would not have been retained year to year to year!!!
The real Question now is ….WHY?????
Let’s just hope this wasn’t Chaim Blooms decision lol
This from a team that dumped Tommy Edman.
It’s practically like signing Juan Soto.