The St. Louis Cardinals cut down their roster down several players Sunday with a series of roster moves.
The Cardinals made a series of moves and re-assigned several players to minor league camp. In addition to those moves, St. Louis re-assigned right-handed pitcher Ryan Fernandez to the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds.
Four pitchers were moved away from minor league camp in this latest round of roster cuts: right-hander Luis Gastelum, right-hander Gerson Moreno, left-hander Packy Naughton and the aforementioned Fernandez.
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The series of moves now leaves the Cardinals with 36 players on the roster in big league camp. With the amount of hurlers who were moved away from the major league roster, there is now a much clearer picture as to who will comprise the team’s major league bullpen.
Currently, FanGraphs projects St. Louis projects the bullpen to be comprised of the following hurlers: right-hander Gordon Graceffo in long-relief, right-hander George Soriano in middle leverage, right-hander Matt Pushard in middle leverage, left-hander Justin Bruihl in middle-leverage, and right-handers Ryne Stanek, Matt Svanson, left-hander JoJo Romero and right-hander Riley O’Brien in closer roles.
As pointed out by Belleville News-Democrat reporter Jeff Jones, Bruihl could benefit the most from the Cardinals’ recent roster moves.
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With Naughton re-assigned to minor league camp and fellow southpaw Quinn Mathews optioned to Triple-A several days ago, Bruihl, a 28-year-old left-hander, to make the roster as the second left-handed reliever on the team aside from Romero.
Bruihl was acquired in return for cash by St. Louis in a trade with the Cleveland Guardians on Jan. 6. He was with Cleveland less than a month this offseason after he was traded there in return for cash by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Last season, Bruihl posted a 5.27 ERA and struck out 18 batters in 13.2 innings pitched across 15 appearances.
Bruihl is yet to make more than 27 appearances in a single season.
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For his career, the former Cal Poly product has a 4.72 ERA and has fanned 69 batters in 89.2 innings pitched across 94 outings with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto.
The Cardinals pitching staff will likely be far away from being set in stone due to the organization being in a rebuild. Due to St. Louis likely not being in a position to compete this season, there organization will likely get a look at several other hurlers over the course of the year, both in the starting rotation and the bullpen.
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