{"id":560315,"date":"2026-02-07T23:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560315\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T23:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:09:18","slug":"cardinals-sign-22-year-old-free-agent-with-outlier-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560315\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Sign 22-Year-Old Free Agent With &#8216;Outlier Stuff&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">During the Major League Baseball offseason, teams are always scoping out unexpected free-agent options, in the hopes that they might find themselves a hidden gem. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">In particular, one offseason tweak or a bit of added velocity can make a world of difference for pitchers. Some pitchers who are released by affiliated ball teams or spend the year in independent ball can be signed as free agents if they impress in offseason workouts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">That was the basis of the St. Louis Cardinals&#8217; latest signing, who put up some particularly impressive numbers at a recent &#8220;pro day&#8221; showcase. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Cardinals officially add Justin Militello to organization<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgx26353mtjxher5z1.jpg\" alt=\"Justin Militello\" title=\"Justin Militello\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"70\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Howell&#8217;s Justin Militello pitches to a Grand Ledge batter in the second inning on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, during the regional semifinal game at DeWitt High School.<\/p>\n<p>210609 Gl Howell Bsball 017a | Nick King\/Lansing State Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">According to the official Minor League Baseball transactions log, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/justin-militello-805505?stats=career-r-pitching-minors&amp;year=2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Cardinals signed<\/a> 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Justin Militello to a minor-league contract on Friday. Militello was formerly an Atlanta Braves undrafted free-agent signing and spent two partial seasons in the Atlanta organization. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">Militello was signed just days after his &#8220;pro day&#8221; for Coach K&#8217;s Academy in Illinois, a training facility owned by Josh Kauten. The Michican native showcased what the academy promoted as &#8220;outlier stuff,&#8221; which is fairly accurate judging by the numbers reported from the showcase.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u203c\ufe0fKsPro Day Athlete Justin Militello Signed by STL\u203c\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/justinmili16?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@justinmili16<\/a> Came to throw in our 5th annual pro day and showed some outlier stuff with an avg velo of 95.1 and T95.9 While sporting a -2.7 avg VAA\ud83e\udd2f\ud83e\udd2f (admittedly most FBs were up so semi zone dependent)<\/p>\n<p>At just 22yo the\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DD2gZk1P06\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/DD2gZk1P06<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CoachKsAcademy (@CoachKsAcademy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoachKsAcademy\/status\/2019826889851039852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">Obviously, there are lots of major leaguers who can throw 96 mph in games, but doing so indoors typically translates to even more velocity against live game competition. And Militello seems to have potential for fairly elite induced vertical break, which usually translates to the ability to generate swings and misses on high heat.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">In 27 appearances for the Braves&#8217; farm teams, Miltello pitched to an ERA of 8.56 across 74 2\/3 innings. His 55 walks were an ugly outlier, so any hope he has of progressing through the Cardinals&#8217; organization rest on him fine-tuning his control a good amount.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">After he was released by Low-A Augusta in August, Militello was clearly hard at work in preparation for his next affiliated ball opportunity. Will the Cardinals be glad they took a chance on him?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/st-louis-cardinals-news\/cardinals-former-no-1-prospect-could-soon-lose-roster-spot-expert-projects-jackson3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cardinals Former No. 1 Prospect Could Soon Lose Roster Spot, Expert Projects<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the Major League Baseball offseason, teams are always scoping out unexpected free-agent options, in the hopes that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-560315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116031872989099035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}