The St. Louis Cardinals announced this afternoon that they have signed free-agent right-handed pitcher Ryan Tepera, and designated lefty reliever Génesis Cabrera for assignment.
Tepera (pronounced tuh-PAIR-uh) will be active for tonight’s series opener with Miami and will wear uniform no. 38.
Tepera, 35, is a veteran of 11 seasons in the majors since debuting in 2015 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s compiled a career mark of 19-20 with a 3.59 ERA in 371 games – almost exclusively as a reliever. He’s made career stops in Toronto (2015-19), Chicago Cubs (2020-21), Chicago White Sox (2021) and most recently with the Los Angeles Angels (2022-23).
The 6-1, 195-pound Texas native appeared in 10 games with the Angels to begin the 2023 campaign, going 2-2 with a 7.27 ERA before being released on May 19. He signed with the Texas Rangers on June 14 and was assigned to their Triple-A Round Rock club, where he went 5-0 with a 0.00 ERA in seven games, totaling 10.0 scoreless innings pitched with 16 strikeouts. He was granted his release by Texas on July 14.
Tepera has seen postseason action in 2015 and 2016 with Toronto, 2020 with the Cubs and in 2021 with the White Sox.
Tepera famously received an MVP vote following the 2020 pandemic-shortened season by the late St. Louis Post-Dispatch Hall of Fame writer Rick Hummel due to a clerical error, after fashioning an 0-1 mark and 3.92 ERA that season with the Cubs.
Cabrera, 26, spent five seasons (2019-23) with the Cardinals and was leading the team’s lefties with his 32 appearances this season. Cabrera became the 2,000th player in franchise history to appear in a game for the Cardinals when he debuted on May 29, 2019.
