The Cardinals will select pitching prospect Hancel Rincon when active rosters expand tomorrow, reports Yancen Pujols. St. Louis already has an opening on the 40-man roster after releasing Caleb Ferguson over the weekend.
Catching prospect Leo Bernal is also coming up tomorrow. The Cardinals will presumably have one more move coming, as the MLB.com transaction tracker indicates they optioned catcher Jimmy Crooks this evening. That means they’ll still have an available active roster spot for a position player. Masyn Winn would be eligible to return from the injured list. If he’s not ready, outfielder Victor Scott II is the only other position player who could come up without a 40-man roster move.
Rincon, 24, gets to the big leagues after eight seasons in the minors. He would’ve become a minor league free agent at the beginning of the offseason if the Cardinals didn’t add him to the roster. Rincon has never featured among the organization’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America and does not appear on the team’s list at MLB Pipeline. James Fegan of FanGraphs slotted him 18th in the system over the offseason, though, crediting Rincon with a plus changeup and above-average slider.
The Cardinals moved Rincon from the rotation to a multi-inning relief role this year. He has pitched 71 1/3 innings over 41 appearances with Triple-A Memphis, working to a 4.04 ERA while striking out roughly 30% of opponents. Rincon has walked a few too many hitters (10.4%) but is getting a decent combination of whiffs and ground-balls. He’s sitting in the 95 mph range on his heater while throwing the aforementioned slider and changeup.
