(May 11/2018)
St. Louis Cardinals Prospect Pulse
- Alex Reyes (RHP) - Class-A+ Palm Beach Cardinals
- Reyes made his return to the mound from Tommy John surgery on May 9th, pitching 3.1 shutout innings in a start for the Palm Beach Cardinals. He allowed four hits and a walk, and he struck out six batters. It was a good start for Reyes after being out of action for so long. Now he'll start to work his way back up towards the Triple-A level, while building up his arm strength and pitch count.
- Jack Flaherty (RHP) - Triple-A Memphis Redbirds
- The 2017 season was a huge success for Flaherty at the upper levels of the Cardinals farm system. He also made his MLB debut, but posted a 6.33 ERA in six games (five starts). He's off to an even better start in 2018. He made a start for the Cardinals on April 3rd, in which he allowed just six hits, a walk and an earned run over five innings, with nine strikeouts. He returned to Triple-A Memphis after that, reeled off three straight quality starts, and was back up in the majors to make another spot start. Now back in Triple-A, his latest effort has been one of his best so far. On May 9th, Flaherty pitched 6.2 innings against Oklahoma City, allowed six hits and two runs, but he didn't walk anybody and he struck out a season high 13 batters. Flaherty is just ready and waiting for an opportunity at a full-time spot in the Cardinals rotation.
- Tyler O'Neill (OF) - Triple-A Memphis Redbirds
- O'Neill played 37 games with Triple-A Memphis after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners last season. In those games he hit .253/.304/.548 with 12 home runs. The 22-year-old Canadian outfielder returned to Memphis to begin the 2018 season hit six home runs in his first 12 games of the season, which led the Cardinals to promote him to make his Major League debut on April 19th. He made his first big league start three days later, in which he picked up his first career MLB RBI. Used primarily as a backup outfielder, O'Neill was returned to Triple-A Memphis on April 28th and has continued to hit well. He currently has a .330/.333/.670 slash line with nine home runs, two doubles, a triple, 24 RBI's and 21 runs scored in 91 at-bats in 23 games played in Triple-A.
- Conner Greene (RHP) - Double-A Springfield Cardinals
- Greene was acquired from the Blue Jays in the offseason in a trade for Randal Grichuk. Making his Cardinals organizational debut in the Double-A Springfield rotation, Greene has shown flashes off the promise that prompted the Cardinals to acquire him. In an April 14th start against Midland, Greene pitched six shutout innings, allowed just one hit and one walk, and he struck out eight batters. Through six starts he has a 4.08 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched. He'll need to continue to work on cutting down his walks, as he allowed a season-high seven free passes in his last start. Greene will look to improve on that in his next start against Arkansas on Saturday.
- Andrew Knizer (C) - Double-A Springfield Cardinals
- Knizer made his full season debut in 2017, and earned a second half promotion to Double-A Springfield, where he hit .324/.371/.462 with four home runs and 13 doubles in 182 at-bats. He's returned to Springfield to start the 2018 season and has picked up right where he left off with the bat, hitting .333/.406/.467 with two home runs, six doubles and 17 RBI's through his first 90 at-bats. Knizer hit safely in 16 of his first 18 games of the season, which included a stretch of nine multi-hit games in 11 games.
- Oscar Mercado (OF) - Triple-A Memphis Redbirds
- The 23-year-old Mercado is off to a strong start in 2018 in his first taste of Triple-A action. Through 31 games for Memphis, Mercado is batting .293/.364/.448 with five home runs, three doubles, 10 stolen bases and 23 runs scored. Mercado has enjoyed a pair of eight game hit streaks so far this year.
- Austin Gomber (LHP) - Triple-A Memphis Redbirds
- The 4th round pick out of Florida Atlantic, Gomber has enjoyed steady success throughout his ascension of the Cardinals farm system. He had a solid 2017 season in Double-A, posting a 3.34 ERA in 143 innings across 26 starts. Assigned to Triple-A Memphis to start 2018, Gomber has risen to the challenge, punctuated by a dominant eight inning shutout start against Iowa on April 23rd, in which he allowed six hits and struck out an eye popping 16 batters.
- Elehuris Montero (3B) - Class-A Peoria Chiefs
- The 19-year-old has made steady progress since starting in the Cardinals system in 2015 in the Dominican Summer League. He's hit the ground running in his full season debut batting .351/.405/.541 with four home runs, seven doubles, a triple, 16 RBI's and 23 runs scored in 111 at-bats for Class-A Peoria. Montero has improved his OPS in each season from .667 to .701 to .838 to .945 so far this year. He's had some tough luck with left-handed pitchers so far this year, going just 3-for-22 and each of his four home runs have come against right-handers. He's had pretty balanced splits throughout his minor league career thus far, so that can probably be chalked up to small sample size.
