The St. Louis Cardinals released a long-term, minor league depth piece on Sunday.
Early in the day, the Cardinals announced a handful of moves down in the minors. Included in the announcements was the news that St. Louis released 24-year-old right-handed pitcher Edwin Núñez. On top of the release of Núñez, the Cardinals reinstated Jared Shuster from the Development List, promoted righty Nolan Sparks to Double-A, assigned Trey Pooser to Peoria after acquiring him from the Tampa Bay Rays, and moved flamethrower Brandon Clarke up to Class-A on his minor league rehab assignment.
“LHP Jared Shuster (AAA) has been reinstated from the Development List,” the Cardinals announced. “RHP Nolan Sparks has been transferred from Peoria (A+) to Springfield (AA). RHP Trey Pooser has been assigned to Peoria. LHP Brandon Clarke’s (AA) rehab assignment has been transferred from the FCL to Palm Beach (A). RHP Edwin Núñez (AA) has been given his unconditional release.”
Núñez spent his entire six-year journey in professional baseball in the Cardinals’ system before his release on Sunday. His professional baseball career began back in 2021 with Class-A Palm Beach. Since then, he moved up and down between the FCL Cardinals and up to Double-A Springfield. But he wasn’t able to move past Double-A in the Cardinals’ system. Núñez logged a 10.17 ERA in 24 appearances with Double-A Springfield before he was released.
His best season came back in 2023. That year, he had a 3.39 ERA in 41 outings across Class-A and High-A. Since then, he hasn’t finished a season with an ERA below 7.68. Unfortunately, the righty wasn’t able to put it all together in the Cardinals’ system. What made him stand out was a blistering fastball that approached 100 miles per hour, but the command wasn’t there. For example, he walked 25 batters this season in 23 innings pitched. Last year, he walked 53 batters in 45 2/3 innings pitched.
On top of the move to release Núñez, the move that is the most interesting, of course, is No. 7 prospect Brandon Clarke’s minor league rehab assignment. Clarke has made two appearances so far this season and topped out at 103.1 miles per hour with his fastball in his second outing of the season.
Pooser isn’t someone Cardinals fans know right now, but he should be interesting as well. He was acquired by the Cardinals on July 17 as the player to be named later in the Chris Roycroft trade. Before coming over to St. Louis, Pooser had a 3.44 ERA in 16 total appearances in Class-A and High-A.
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