On the Thursday after the All-Star break, I posted the 1st half update for minor league hitters. Shortly after, I posted the update for the minor league pitchers, but I covered so many pitchers, I did not get to the Low A pitchers. No problem, the rookie season was on the verge of ending, so I could just combine it with that. Well, due to the trading deadline plus the shift in format, it took longer to get to this final post than I would have guessed, but it has finally arrived.
Palm Beach
Technically, this is supposed to be part three of a series of minor league updates on the 1st half, so it does feel weird to cover the pitchers, but not the hitters here. A full month has been played since the hitter update. But I do not have the space to cover the hitters too. So here you go: the first half update for Low A pitchers… in the middle of August.
Andrew Dutkanych IV, 21 – RHP
7th Round, 2024 Draft
Stats: 3 GS, 7 IP, 42.9 K%, 17.9 BB%, 46.2 GB%, 1.29 ERA/1.76 FIP/1.76 xFIP
Dutkanych pitched yesterday, and while my updating skills are fine for most of these stats, the FIP and xFIP are not accurate. Though maybe close. He threw 3 innings, faced 12 batters, and threw 49 pitches yesterday – the first two are professional highs and I assume the last one is too. He struck out 4 and walked 2 with an earned run. I’m curious about two things: how many innings do the Cardinals want him to throw this year if everything goes right and how many next year? He has already surpassed his high in college is why I ask.
Jack Findlay, 22 – LHP
8th round, 2024 Draft
Stats: 27 G, 49.2 IP, 23.4 K%, 16 BB%, 41 GB%, 5.62 ERA/4.27 FIP/4.73 xFIP
He’s maxed out at 12 batters faced and part of me wonders if they would push him more if his results were better. Yeah this is a post-Tommy John season and yeah the important thing is just staying healthy and throwing to your innings goal, but I consider this a pretty disappointing season for an old for the level prospect pitching out of the bullpen.
Nolan Sparks, 22 – RHP
13th round, 2024 Draft
Stats: 18 G (12 GS), 72.1 IP, 24.1 K%, 14.2 BB%, 43.4 GB%, 4.85 ERA/4.50 FIP/4.33 xFIP
Sparks was pretty dominant out of the bullpen in his draft year, so the Cardinals have tried stretching him out to mixed results. For what it’s worth, his stats looked considerably better at the All-Star break. He missed a couple weeks – it coincided with the All-Star break so hard to say how long he was injured – he returned and had two very bad outings where he combined for 9 walks to 31 batters faced. He hasn’t pitched since August 2nd, so it was presumably injury or fatigued-related.
Sam Brodersen, 23 – RHP
15th round, 2024 draft
Stats: 30 G, 37.1 IP, 29 K%, 20.8 BB%, 33.7 GB%, 6.51 ERA/4.88 FIP/4.54 xFIP
I probably wouldn’t share his stats if he were not drafted last season. Seems like a classic “has no idea where his pitches are going” type pitcher. He also pitched yesterday so obligatory his FIP and xFIP aren’t accurate. He pitched the 10th inning, struck out the side, but also walked two and gave up a line drive single. So that’s fun.
Charles Harrison, 23 – RHP
7th round, 2023 draft
Stats: 15 G, 21 IP, 23.8 K%, 18.8 BB%, 36.8 GB%, 6.43 ERA/5.17 FIP/4.99 xFIP
Again, not usually a guy I would bother to share the stats, but he was a relatively higher draft pick back in 2023 and missed just about all of 2024. So this year is his first real action in pro ball. Not real promising.
Christian Worley, 23 – RHP
9th round, 2023 draft
Stats: 29 G, 39.1 IP, 22.6 K%, 16.1 BB%, 50.5 GB%, 3.89 ERA/4.83 FIP/5.36 xFIP
Worley appears to currently be in High A – he’s made one not very good appearance. This is his first pro season as he missed all of 2024 – this is a theme in this update apparently. It’s really hard to know how good any of these pitchers are because they are still trying to recover from a season-long injury.
Jacob Odle, 21 – RHP
14th round, 2023 Draft
Stats (Complex): 4 GS, 8.2 IP, 41.7 K%, 5.6 BB%, 37.5 GB%, 4.15 ERA/.80 FIP/1.36 xFIP
Low A: 9 GS, 27 IP, 26.8 K%, 19.5 BB%, 41.3 GB%, 6.67 ERA/4.06 FIp/4.81 xFIP
It makes sense given the level, but for everyone I’ve written about so far, 2025 is essentially their first pro season. That’s right Odle is another guy who was injured for all of 2024. He seems to have been drafted at 19-years-old and utterly dominated the complex league so that’s fun. The ERA/FIP differential is very strange, but means nothing for less than 40 total innings pitched.
Leonel Sequera, 19 – RHP
Stats: 21 GS, 94.1 IP, 20 K%, 8.9 BB%, 49.3 GB%, 3.91 ERA/3.50 FIP/3.99 xFIP
And then we take a hard swerve into a guy who has been pitching professional games since he was 16-years-old. This is Sequera’s fourth professional season and somehow the 19-year-old is the workhorse of the staff. I suppose the negative is that this is effectively how he pitched last season at in his seven appearances at Low A. The K rate improved which is good, but the GB% rate went down.
Nelfy Ynfante, 20 – RHP
Stats: 20 G (9 GS), 71.2 IP, 18 K%, 11.4 BB%, 43.1 GB%, 5.40 ERA/4.78 FIP/4.60 xFIP
Ynfante is a player who would definitely benefit if there was a rookie advanced league like there used to be. He was pretty good in the complex league, but is a little outmatched in Low A. He’d presumably be in Low A right now, but would have spent most of the year in that advanced league.
Yadiel Batista, 21 – LHP
Stats (CPX): 12 G (5 GS), 47 IP, 22.5 K%, 4.8 BB%, 35.5 GB%, 3.06 ERA/3.59 FIP/3.45 xFIP
Low A: 4 G, 14 IP, 13.2 K%, 11.8 BB%, 38.8 GB%, 5.14 ERA/5.91 FIP/6.09 xFIP
Batista is another pitcher who pitched yesterday – This happened to fall on a day where Palm Beach went 9 innings of course. Seems like he was an older prospect who took advantage of weaker competition by making sure he didn’t walk anybody, but Low A is a little too good for him right now. He went 4 innings yesterday, he did strike out 4, but also walked three and gave up 4 runs. One of those walks is intentional for some reason.
Keiverson Ramirez, 19 – RHP
Stats (CPX): 10 G (5 GS), 30.1 IP, 18 K%, 8.6 BB%, 50 GB%, 3.86 ERA/5.08 FIP/4.41 xFIP
Low A: 3 G, 11 IP, 8.3 K%, 12.5 BB%, 51.9 GB%, 2.45 ERA/4.42 FIP/4.80 xFIP
A consequence of when I’m writing this is that I’m covering some players the Cardinals felt compelled to promote at the conclusion of the complex season. That’s true of Batista and that’s true of Ramirez. It seems entirely innings-driven, but also getting these players a sampling of Low A is maybe an added benefit. Ramirez threw 50 innings in the DSL last season and is only at 41 innings this year.
Yordy Herrera, 20 – LHP
Stats: 27 G, 45 IP, 27.2 K%, 16.5 BB%, 31.1 GB%, 5.00 ERA/4.84 FIP/4.62 xFIP
Remember last year when I gave the updates on the Low A pitchers and just about everyone had good stats. I miss that. Anyway Herrera has no idea where his pitches are going, but he misses bats a fair amount.
Complex League
The Cardinals kind of promoted any semi-interesting pitcher in the complex league so believe it or not, I have no pitchers to share. Everyone is either 21 with not that interesting of stats or a teenager with horrendous stats. So this will inadvertently be about the hitters.
Yairo Padilla, 18 – SS (#15 VEB prospect)
Stats: 38 G, 148 PAs, .283/.396/.367, 12.2 BB%, 14.2 K%, .083 ISO, .340 BABIP, 119 wRC+
I’m extremely curious what the Cardinals will do with Padilla. As you can probably guess, nobody has power in this league. Except for Raniel Rodriguez. Every single player on this team (aside from Rodriguez) has lower than a .100 ISO. So that’s not cause for concern. I do feel like from a workload standpoint, even if they feel he is ready for Low A, his season probably doesn’t start in April. Going from 148 PAs to about 500 is a huge jump.
Heriberto Carabello, 20 – C
Stats (CPX): 14 G, 50 PAs, .256/.420/.333, 16 BB%, 18 K%, .077 ISO, .333 BABIP, 124 wRC+
Low A: 18 G, 64 PAs, .164/.266/.218, 10.9 BB%, 25 K%, .055 ISO, .205 BABIP, 51 wRC+
Somehow, the Cardinals have another catching prospect I’ve never heard of. Yeah he was ranked 32nd on the Cardinals team list by Fangraphs. I don’t really know why he was ranked, but okay. I don’t know how well he can catch, but he seems to throw out runners just fine. In his pro career, he has thrown out 30% of runners at the complex league and way more small sample, but 35.3% of runners at Low A on 17 attempts. He also threw out 15 caught guys in the DSL back in 2023. Just 19 stolen bases.
So that’s it actually. I was under the impression that the DSL season had ended and actually wrote some names for them, but as it turns out, the season is still happening. So that was a huge waste of time. There is one recent draft pick playing right now, so I feel obligated to give the update on him.
BONUS
Here are Jack Gurevitch’s stats so far
5 G, 19 PAs, .286/.474/.357, 21.9 BB%, 21.9 K%, .071 ISO, .400 BABIP, 185 wRC+
You know the drill. Gurevitch played yesterday, walking twice, but going 0-3 with a strikeout. So his wRC+ is probably quite a bit lower than that.
