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The St. Louis Cardinals re-signed RHP Sem Robberse to a minor league contract.
Robberse looking to make his Major League Baseball debut in 2026
Robberse has yet to reach the big leagues. The 24-year-old was acquired from the Blue Jays at the 2023 deadline in the Jordan Hicks trade.
Robberse cracked the 40-man roster that offseason because the Cardinals didn’t want to lose him in the Rule 5 draft.
He spent the ’24 season in Triple-A and was optioned back there to begin this year. Robberse underwent surgery a few weeks into the season.
The young Netherlands-born righty has generally been a serviceable starter in the minors.
From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 414 1/3 innings, allowing 4.04 earned runs per nine. His 22.5% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate in that span were both fairly average numbers.
He also got ground balls on close to half of the balls in play he allowed.
Sem Robberse nasty changeup w/ 17.2″ of run
This year, he got out to a rough start, posting a 7.36 ERA over four Triple-A outings.
However, that seems to have been mostly bad luck.
His .447 batting average on balls in play and 61.6% strand rate in that small sample were both to the unfortunate side.
Meanwhile, his 24.7% strikeout rate and 46.8% ground ball rate were both strong numbers. His 10.4% walk rate was on the high side but not egregiously so.
Teams frequently use the non-tender deadline to clear the back of the roster, often with the hope of re-signing the player to a minor league contract.
Previously on Blue Jays Central