Grichuk/Mayers/Voit to St. Louis, Huffman to Memphis, Fowler/Siegrist to DL

Following a third consecutive loss, including a second straight to the Pittsburgh Pirates which put them alone in fourth place in the National League Central, the St. Louis Cardinals responded with a series of roster moves.

Three players were promoted from AAA Memphis on Sunday afternoon: one very familiar face, one moderately familiar face, and one new face.

Randal Grichuk, who opened 2017 as the starting left fielder for the Cardinals before being demoted to single-A last month after struggling at the plate, was promoted back to St. Louis, where he will bat cleanup tonight. While his AAA results continued a disturbing trend in his career towards strikeouts without sufficiently drawing walks, he did display lots of power, hitting six home runs in 67 plate appearances.

Mike Mayers, who made his MLB debut in a disastrous start on Sunday Night Baseball against the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, is returning to the big leagues as well. In an abbreviated 2016 big-league campaign that could only be described as disastrous, Mayers threw 5 ¹⁄₃ innings with a 27.00 ERA, a 11.96 fielding-independent ERA, and a 6.83 xFIP. In 14 starts this season in Memphis, Mayers was 5-6 with a 3.74 ERA and a 4.64 FIP—not necessarily much to get excited about, but certainly not as awful as his 2016 MLB production.

Making his first trip to the big leagues is Luke Voit, a 26 year-old power hitting first baseman who attended Lafayette High School in the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood before attending Missouri State University. Although not an especially ballyhooed prospect, Voit has been undeniably potent in Memphis this season: in 293 plate appearances, he has hit 12 home runs and has a triple-slash line of .322/.406/.561, good for a wRC+ of 150, or 50% above league average. In 2016, with AA Springfield, Voit had a wRC+ of 145.

Chad Huffman, the 32 year-old outfielder widely known for being Matt Carpenter’s high school and college teammate, was sent back to Memphis. Although he played reasonably well in the big leagues, sporting an ever-so-slightly below average wRC+ of 99, he did not have an obvious role in St. Louis.

Two Cardinals were placed on the Disabled List: center fielder Dexter Fowler and lefty reliever Kevin Siegrist. Fowler, who had rebounded from a slow start to tally 13 home runs and a 111 wRC+, had missed the previous two games prior to yesterday and will have to wait at least ten days to be reactivated from the Disabled List. Siegrist has not pitched since June 22 and will be eligible to return from the DL in a week, though he has struggled this season, with a 4.28 ERA and 4.49 FIP, putting him just at replacement level.