The St. Louis Cardinals are looking to finish May strong with two more games against the Texas Rangers but will do so without an outfield regular and two new additions to the 26-man roster.
Before Saturday’s game, the Cardinals announced that Jordan Walker has been placed on the 10-day IL with left wrist inflammation and called up utility player Ryan Villade to fill the opening on the roster. Along with the Walker move, the team sent down pitcher Gordon Graceffo and recalled Roddery Munoz back up from Memphis.
The Walker news is a bummer since it looked like he was starting to turn a corner offensively while also putting together a strong defensive season in right field. While the overall numbers are not what fans or the organization wanted out of the former top prospect, Walker had put together some quality at-bats and looked more comfortable at the plate the last couple of weeks. Villade was brought in as a bench option early in the offseason when the Cardinals grabbed him from the Twins in exchange for some cash. The 26-year old was hitting .280 with five homers and 31 RBI while playing all around the diamond, including all three outfield spots and the corner infield positions. In today’s lineup without Walker, Alec Burleson is starting in right field which may be the preferred alignment for the time that Walker is out. Katie Woo of The Athletic noted that manager Oli Marmol expects Walker to miss right about the minimum amount of time so Villade will likely be filling a strict bench role.
On the pitching side, Graceffo was sent down after giving up four runs in an inning of work in yesterday’s 11-1 blowout loss as the Cardinals need a fresh arm and have not yet settled on the role they want Graceffo to fill. The righty has only pitched seven times this month and yesterday’s action was his first game time in a week. The promotion for Munoz is his third of the season, including a game as the 27th man in a doubleheader, and he returns to St. Louis for the first time since May 2. Munoz has had a mediocre month of May while pitching with Memphis, throwing 11.1 innings while striking out 13 hitters. Command continues to be an issue for the flamethrower as he has walked seven hitters in those innings so the Cardinals will most likely use him in lower leverage spots or to fill the middle innings while he is on the active roster.
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