ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Cardinals have made their first round of roster cuts in Spring Training Tuesday, reassigning 10 players from major league camp to minor league camp.
Pitchers Andre Granillo, Tink Hence, Packy Naughton, Max Rajcic, Victor Santos and Logan Sawyer, catchers Leonardo Bernal, Sammy Hernandez and Carlos Linárez, and outfielder Moisés Gómez were the first rounds of roster cuts by the Cardinals in Spring Training
Among the 10 cuts included Hence, who is the the Cardinals second best prospect in their system and ranked 64th overall by MLB pipeline, Rajcic, who was the Cardinals 2023 Minor League Pitcher of the year and Naughton, who sporadically made appearances for the Cardinals in the majors in the last two seasons.
Most of the players saw very limited Spring Training action, mostly in the latter stages of Spring Training Games, when teams tend to throw their minor leaguers and prospects. Hence pitched only two games, pitching four innings and striking out six, while allowing only three nights, Rajcic pitched three innings in the two total games he appeared and Naughton did not pitch in Spring Training due to still recovering from left flexor tendon surgery.
Looking among the 10 players, none of the 10 were fairly surprising cuts. All 10 players were non-roster invitees, outside the Cardinals 40-man roster. Most were still prospects in the Cardinals system and none have seen major league action besides Naughton. Naughton was expected to start 2024 in Triple-A as he works his way back from left flexor tendon surgery.
All 10 players will now join the 115 players that were invited to Cardinals Minor League, which began Monday.
The cuts will take the Cardinals current Spring Training roster to 58. with a little over three weeks to go before the Cardinals Opening Day matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on March 28.