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Cardinals Release Jhonny Peralta

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The Cardinals have released infielder Jhonny Peralta, per a club announcement. The veteran had recently been designated for assignment.

It’s no surprise that Peralta cleared waivers. He’s earning $10MM in 2017, the final season of the four-year free agent deal he signed when he joined the Cards.

At 35 years of age, Peralta seems to have hit a wall. After struggling through an injury-riddled 2016 campaign, there was hope that he’d bounce back this year. But he’s hitting only .204/.259/.204 through 58 plate appearances.

The story is similar on the defensive side of the spectrum. Generally regarded as a solid, albeit unspectacular shortstop, Peralta has drawn negative reviews for his glovework since the start of 2015 — even after moving over to third base last year. DRS and UZR have both pegged him at average thus far in 2017, though that’s in a sample of just 114 innings.

Still, it’s easy to imagine rival organizations taking a look at a player who was an All-Star in 2015. That’s especially true since Peralta can be had for the league-minimum salary, with St. Louis continuing to pay the vast majority of his salary. Even if he’s not capable of handling short on a day-to-day basis, it helps that he brings so much experience at the position. All said, for clubs in need of some versatility around the diamond, taking a chance on the 15-year MLB veteran may hold quite a bit of appeal.

Marco Gonzales To Return To Big Leagues

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  • Cardinals lefty Marco Gonzales will make his first big-league appearance since 2015 in a start on Tuesday, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com writes. Gonzales made it to the Majors barely a year after the Cardinals picked him 19th overall in the 2013 draft, but he struggled in 2015 and missed the entire 2016 season after having Tommy John surgery. Now, after six mostly successful minor-league starts, he’s back.

Cardinals Claim Sean Gilmartin

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The Cardinals have announced that they’ve claimed lefty Sean Gilmartin from the Mets and optioned him to Triple-A Memphis. The Mets designated Gilmartin for assignment earlier today.

Gilmartin struggled in Triple-A Las Vegas this season, with a 7.05 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 at the Triple-A level. He is, however, a controllable lefty with big-league experience — he posted a 2.67 ERA, 8.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 for the Mets in 2015 after they took him from the Twins in the Rule 5 Draft the prior winter. He is also capable of starting and can also be optioned, which perhaps might have contributed to the Cardinals’ decision to take a flier on him.

Soclovich Accepts Outright Assignment

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  • Right-hander Miguel Socolovich was outrighted to the Cardinals’ Triple-A after clearing waivers. St. Louis designated the 30-year-old for assignment in late May after he allowed 18 runs in 18 2/3 innings of work. The well-traveled righty has a 4.25 ERA over the life of 82 2/3 Major League innings, and he’s averaged 7.5 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in that time. Socolovich could’ve elected free agency but instead accepted his assignment and will hope for another crack at the Majors later in 2017.

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Cardinals Designate Jhonny Peralta For Assignment

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The Cardinals announced on Friday that they’ve designated veteran infielder Jhonny Peralta for assignment and activated second baseman Kolten Wong from the disabled list.

Peralta is playing out the final season of a four-year, $53MM contract, and while he was quite productive through the first half of that pact, his performance has cratered across the past two seasons. The 35-year-old Peralta tore a ligament in his thumb in Spring Training 2016 and never seemed to fully recover. He went on to have a second DL stint for the same thumb later that summer and finished up the ’16 campaign with a pedestrian .260/.307/.408 batting line in just 82 games.

[Related: Updated St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]

The 2017 campaign, however, has been infinitely worse for Peralta. He’s spent time on the disabled list this year with an upper respiratory infection and, when healthy, has struggled through one of the worst prolonged stretches of his career. In 58 plate appearances this season, Peralta has batted just .204/.259/.204. As GM John Mozeliak explained, Peralta simply wasn’t going to have the opportunity to accumulate much playing time. With Jedd Gyorko taking over as the primary third baseman, Aledmys Diaz at shortstop and Wong at second base, the best Peralta could’ve hoped for would’ve been a utility role. Instead, it appears that job will go to rookie Paul DeJong for the time being.

Peralta is earning $10MM this season, so it’s all but certain that he’ll clear waivers and be formally released in the coming days. At that point, he’ll be able to sign with any club for the pro-rated portion of the league minimum for any time spent in the Majors. The Cardinals will be on the hook for the remainder of his salary (roughly $6.29MM through season’s end), minus that pro-rated league minimum sum he’d get were he to sign with another club.

Cardinals Notes: Grichuk, Trade Deadline

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  • As part of a Cardinals-related chat with readers, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch figures the Cards would prefer to make a trade relatively soon if one could be found, rather than wait until closer to the July 31 trade deadline to add reinforcements.  A big trade that costs the Cardinals multiple top prospects (say, to acquire a player like the Marlins’ Marcell Ozuna) might be necessary to really shake up the struggling offense, Goold opines.  The Cards may have a tougher time finding a bat this summer than their rivals in Chicago may have in finding a starter, however, as Goold hears that pitching is expected to be more available than hitting at the deadline.
  • Goold’s mailbag piece offers several items about the Cardinals’ minor league core players, trade speculation and this intriguing tidbit: “watch for where he [Randal Grichuk] is assigned next.  That will tell us if the Cardinals are trying to find out” Grichuk’s trade value.  St. Louis recently optioned Grichuk all the way down to the Class-A Advanced level to work with team offensive strategist George Greer in an effort to overhaul Grichuk’s approach at the plate.  The Cards would certainly be selling low if they did decide to move Grichuk, given his struggles this season and his troubles in getting on base (a .289 OBP) last year.  Still, Grichuk turns 26 in August and is a former first-rounder who put up an .877 OPS over 350 for the Cardinals in 2015, so he could be an intriguing trade chip.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/7/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the league…

  • The Orioles have outrighted infielder Paul Janish to Triple-A Norfolk after Janish cleared waivers, according to an announcement from the team.  Janish was designated for assignment yesterday to clear room for Ruben Tejada joining the O’s.  Janish has spent much of his three years in Baltimore’s organization at the Triple-A level, appearing in 205 games for Norfolk and just 31 with the Orioles.
  • The Cardinals have purchased the contract of first baseman/outfielder Chad Huffman, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports (via Twitter).  Righty John Gant was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.  Huffman’s MLB career consists of nine games with the Yankees in 2010 and he hasn’t been back to the Show since, bouncing between the Cardinals, Tigers and Indians farm systems, as well as spending parts of two seasons in Japan.  Originally a second-round pick of the Padres in the 2006 draft, Huffman has an impressive .281/.376/.463 over 4094 career plate appearances in the minors.
  • The Marlins have signed right-hander William Cuevas to a minor league deal, as announced by the A1 Performance Group (Twitter link), Cuevas’ agency.  The righty elected free agency earlier this week after rejecting an outright assignment from the Tigers.  Cuevas, 26, has a limited Major League resume that consists of one-third of an inning for Detroit this season and five innings for Boston in 2016.  The 26-year-old has a 3.67 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 2.67 K/BB rate over 772 2/3 career innings in the minors, with 103 of his 171 appearances coming as a starting pitcher.
  • The Tigers and right-handed reliever A.J. Achter “mutually agreed” upon his release yesterday, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The former Twins/Angels reliever will now hit free agency in search of a new club. Achter, 28, has appeared in 45 games between Minnesota and Anaheim in the past three seasons, pitching to a combined 3.92 ERA with 4.8 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 38.4 percent ground-ball rate in 62 innings of Major League action. He’s had a rough year with Detroit’s Double-A affiliate, however, limping to a 5.34 earned run average with a 24-to-14 K/BB ratio through 28 2/3 innings.
  • Infielder Jose Pirela had his contract selected by the Padres prior to last night’s game, the team announced. The former Yankees farmhand was off to a .331/.387/.635 start with 13 homers and eight stolen bases through 201 plate appearances in the admittedly hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. The 27-year-old Pirela has yet to perform offensively in a brief sample of MLB work (148 plate appearances dating back to his debut in 2014), but he does have a nice track record in Triple-A. To clear a spot on the roster, San Diego put Jarred Cosart (foot contusion) on the 10-day disabled list and moved Travis Jankowski from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL.

Cardinals Sign Cuban RHP Hector Mendoza

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11:58am: MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (via Twitter) that it’s a minor league deal for Mendoza, who will receive a $500K signing bonus. As previously noted, that doesn’t come with a luxury tax since Mendoza is exempt from bonus pools, making his addition is a relatively low-cost pick up for St. Louis.

9:37am: The Cardinals announced that they’ve agreed to terms with 23-year-old right-hander Hector Mendoza. The Cuban native, who is being represented by Wasserman, was declared a free agent by Major League Baseball back in January and is reportedly exempt from international bonus pools. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, though his exemption means that the Cards were free to sign him to a Major League contract.

Though Mendoza falls shy of the requisite five years of pro experience in Cuba that MLB requires for bonus pool exemption, El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro reported in January that the league determined that Mendoza can be considered a professional rather than an amateur due to brief stints in Japan across parts of two separate seasons (combined with his four years in Cuba).

Baseball America’s Ben Badler connected the Cardinals to Mendoza over the weekend (subscription required and strongly recommended), noting that while he once was one of the more promising young arms on Cuba, he’s struggled Japan and had durability issues in Cuba. Per Badler, Mendoza has a three-pitch starter’s repertoire, including a 94 mph fastball, when he’s at his best. However, scouts who’ve seen him recently offer mixed reports and peg him as a potential reliever. Badler suggests that he’s currently ready to pitch at Class-A Advanced or Double-A. That could conceivably make him an option for the Redbirds later this season, depending on how quickly he’s able to join a minor league affiliate and how he fares once he returns to competitive ball.

In parts of six professional seasons between the Cuban National Series and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Mendoza has a 2.95 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9. Control issues seem to have always been a problem for the righty, based on his yearly walk rates, but he’s also consistently managed to post solid ERAs and did have a successful run as the closer for Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud in the 2013-14 campaign.

Cardinals Could Be Fit For Marcell Ozuna

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  • It would make sense for the Cardinals to discuss a trade with the Marlins involving outfielder Marcell Ozuna, Rosenthal writes. The Cardinals would get a middle-of-the-order hitter who is controllable through 2019. The Marlins, meanwhile, want to add prospects and it’s doubtful they can extend Ozuna, who is represented by Scott Boras. (Rosenthal recently reported that the Marlins would consider trading Ozuna.) Rosenthal also argues that the Marlins’ best path forward right now is to rebuild. Past attempts to win now have resulted in the team giving up too many small pieces of their future (including players like Andrew Heaney and Josh Naylor) in recent trades.

Jhonny Peralta's Roster Spot Could Be In Jeopardy

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  • Cardinals third baseman Jhonny Peralta’s roster spot might be in jeopardy when second baseman Kolten Wong returns from the disabled list, according to Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. Wong, out since May 28 with a left elbow strain, could rejoin the Redbirds as early as Friday. As for Peralta, he won’t regain his old starting job at third – Jedd Gyorko has been the Cardinals’ biggest power threat since last season, after all – and isn’t particularly interested in taking reps at first, per Langosch. That lack of versatility could cost Peralta his place on the team, even though he’s making an expensive $10MM to complete a four-year contract, in favor of recently promoted prospect Paul DeJong. Thanks in part to health issues, the 35-year-old Peralta has markedly fallen off dating back to last season, having combined for a team-worst minus-0.9 fWAR and a .249/.297/.374 line in 370 trips to the plate.
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