Cardinals Make Bevy of Roster Moves, Pitching Decisions for Doubleheader
The Cardinals promoted lefty starter Bruce Zimmermann, 31, on Tuesday and optioned struggling reliever Ryan Fernandez. The Cards, who announced that Matt Svanson and Hunter Dobbins will start Tuesday's two games, will reportedly promote changeup specialist Luis Gastelum on Wednesday.
Video Transcript
In preparation for today's doubleheader against the Brewers, the Cardinals made a series of decisions, roster moves, announcements, to try and fortify their pitching staff to try and beat the Brewers, something they couldn't do last night.
sadly, Monday night they took a three-nothing lead into the seventh inning.
Brewers scored four times, won the first game of the five-game series, four to three.
Today is the makeup game from the rain out, May 5th, and then tonight's regularly scheduled game begins at 6:45, PM central time in game two of the split doubleheader.
I'm John Denton of Round Table Sports.
Here's a look at some of the moves the Cardinals made today.
Some of them are a little head-scratching, and some of them, you know, just makes you wonder what direction they're headed.
The Cardinals are gonna pitch game one.
They're gonna use Matt Swanson as an opener.
here the, Swanson has struggled most of this year.
Last year it looked like he was a future star as a closer.
This year he's had str- had trouble all along, landing his secondary pitches, but he's gonna be the opener today.
Part of the reasoning might be the fact that Jacob Mierzowski, the Brewers', all-star pitcher, is on the other side.
He's been the most dominant pitcher in baseball this year.
so the Cardinals are using an opener in game one.
originally, the Cardinals were thought to be toying with the idea of pitching Michael McGreevy today.
They've scrapped that all together.
They brought back Hunter Dobbins, Hunter Dobbins, who will be the 27th man for the doubleheader.
I, I like Dobbins.
I think he's a gritty, tough pitcher.
he doesn't have a lot of swing and miss stuff, but he's gonna pitch game two.
He's pitched in four games so far, two as a reliever and two as a starter.
He's had good success at Memphis so far, five and one.
and he's one and O with the Cardinals so far.
He has given up three home runs, but he'll pitch game two tonight, i- in game two of the split doubleheader.
the Cardinals also brought up 31-year-old Bruce Zimmerman.
Bruce Zimmerman is, He was a s- 2017 draft pick of the Braves.
He's pitched in the big leagues parts of five seasons.
he pitched with, the Orioles for four years, and then pitched w- The last time he pitched in Big League Baseball was 2025 with those hated Brewers, and he was terrible.
he pitched, six innings, that day.
He gave up seven hits, six runs, five earned, and gave up, two home runs that day.
Zimmerman has been in Triple-A Memphis with the Cardinals all season.
He's pitched decent down there, but the part of the problem, again, in Memphis, he's given up 14 home runs in Memphis in 68 innings, I believe it is.
So h- trouble with the home run ball.
He's basically in St. Louis today as protection in case one of the starters gets knocked out early, pitch count goes up high early.
Zimmerman can be used to cover a lot of innings, a- and protect the starting staff.
The Cardinals are, are, are, are really trying to protect their starting staff.
Kyle Leahy is up against, his career high in innings.
Michael McGreevy's up against his career high in Major League innings.
He's been a starter down below, so the Cardinals are, are protecting him.
they could start, McGreevy tomorrow.
They could start, Andre Pallante tomorrow, and then use one of the other ones on Thursday, and possibly push Kyle Leahy back to Friday.
the Cardinals also made a couple of moves.
Ma- Max Rajic was moved to the 60-day DL.
It's feared that his elbow injury that he suffered in Friday's blowout against the Cubs is, is very serious.
he's gonna go to Me- he's gonna travel to Dallas next week to visit Dr., Keith Meister.
he's a guy who invented the brace surgery that's not as, invasive as Tommy John.
There's a quicker return.
so that tells you that they consider this to be a serious arm injury.
Again, it, it bears saying, this is the first arm injury for a Cardinals pitcher that has warranted an IL stint in 22 months.
September of 2024 was the last time a pitcher went on the IL for the Cardinals with an arm injury, and that was JoJo Romero after the Cardinals had already been eliminated.
It was just a precautionary move because he felt some inflammation in the flexor tendon in his left forearm.
So it's an incredible run of great health.
It's sad what happened to Rajic.
It's probably gonna alter the course of his career.
He's probably looking at a surgery and a, and a long rehab.
But it's been a incredible run.
Give, give Dusty Blake a ton of credit.
you know, fans are screaming Ollie Marmol for taking pitchers out too early.
Like, there's a method to the madness.
They're trying to keep pitchers healthy.
You know, from some perspective, the Cubs have 13 pitchers on the IL this season.
And this is the first Cardinal pitcher to go on the IL with an arm injury in 22 months.
Ryan Fernandez was, was optioned to Memphis.
Fernandez didn't retire any of the three batters that he faced, in, in the seventh inning on Monday night.
you know, Fernandez is back to nibbling again.
he went three-two on Sal Freeling, gave up a double.
He went three-two to Hamilton and gave up a double.
He's, he's got to throw strikes more.
the big news also, Luis Castellum reportedly will be in St. Louis by Wednesday.
Very, very promising reliever.
He shot through the Cardinal system.
He is a change-up specialist.
He's racked up huge strikeout numbers.
he reached double A by 2025.
Springfield, double A Springfield, he had 13.9 strikeouts per nine innings, 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings the year before in Palm Beach.
he's This season, it-- this season with, with Memphis, he's pitched really well.
He'll get to the big leagues with a stretch of 17 consecutive I'm sorry.
Let's see.
Let me look it up here.
I've forgotten it already.
18 straight scoreless outings.
He hasn't given up an earned run since May 17th.
During that time, he's four and O with one save and 30 strikeouts.
He has a devastating changeup.
The Cardinals obviously wanna find out if it plays at the big league level.
So, all reports are that Castellum will join the Cardinals on Wednesday.
Likely, more than likely, Bruce Zimmerman will be optioned back to Memphis.
But, that's all the Cardinal news today.
there-- stay tuned because there will be more after today's doubleheader.
I'm John Denton with Round Table Sports.
