(PRESS RELEASE)
The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they have extended non-roster invites to 18 players to take part in the team’s Major League Spring Training camp along with the 39 players currently on the team’s big league roster.
Of the 18 non-roster invitees, 16 are players that were members of the Cardinals organization in 2013. The lone invitees who were not with the organization last year are catcher Ed Easley and infielder Scott Moore. Easley, 28, batted a career-high .334 for Triple-A Reno (Arizona) last season and led the Pacific Coast League in catcher’s caught stealing pct. at 36 pct. He was a supplemental 1st round draft pick for the Diamondbacks in 2007. Moore, 30, batted a combined .271 with 14 home runs and 66 RBI between Triple-A Sacramento (Oakland) and Tucson (San Diego) in 2013. The left-handed-hitting third baseman also had a career-high 33 doubles. Moore has had 152 games of prior Major League experience with the Chicago Cubs (2006-07), Baltimore (2007-08, 2010) and Houston (2012), batting .242 with 16 home runs and 53 RBI.
Several of the Cardinals recent top draft selections, including 2012 first rounder’s Stephen Piscotty, James Ramsey and Patrick Wisdom and 2013 first round selection Marco Gonzalez, are among the NRIs.
The Cardinals also announced today additional minor league coaching staff assignments with Erik Pappas being named Hitting Coach at Springfield (AA), Jobel Jimenez as Hitting Coach at Peoria (A) and Kleininger Teran as Hitting Coach for the Gulf Coast League Cardinals (R).
Cardinals pitchers and catchers report to Jupiter, Fla. on Wednesday, February 12 and conduct their first workout on February 13. The full squad reports on February 17 and begins workouts on February 18. The following is a listing of the Cardinals non-roster invitees for 2014:
PITCHERS (7): Jose Almarante, Tim Cooney, Sam Gaviglio, Marco Gonzales, Zach Petrick, Lee Stoppelman, Jordan Swagerty;
CATCHERS (5): Ed Easley, Carson Kelly, Casey Rasmus, Cody Stanley, Travis Tartamella;
INFIELDERS (4): Luis Mateo, Scott Moore, Xavier Scruggs, Patrick Wisdom;
OUTFIELDERS (2): Stephen Piscotty, James Ramsey
