The 2019 Memphis Redbirds season began with Tommy Edman on the infield and ended with Dylan Carlson in the outfield. Two years and one pandemic later, both players can be found in the St. Louis Cardinals’ batting order on a daily basis, key components to any World Series aspirations for the Redbirds’ parent club. If we go back to 2018 — a season that ended with a second-straight Pacific Coast League championship for Memphis — we recall AutoZone Park memories of Randy Arozarena, Luke Voit, Adolis Garcia, Jack Flaherty, and Dakota Hudson, all now rising stars in the major leagues (though not all still in the St. Louis system).
Back to the present, though, and it’s hard to envision current Redbirds making the kind of impact so many of their predecessors have before, during, and now near the end of the worldwide health crisis. Among the Cardinals’ current top 20 prospects (as ranked by MLB.com), only two have been with Memphis since Opening Day in May, and both are pitchers: Matthew Liberatore (the number-one prospect) and Zack Thompson. Liberatore (acquired in a trade that sent Arozarena to Tampa Bay) has an especially high ceiling and could occupy a future spot in the Cardinals’ starting rotation, but he’s pitched in only six games above Class A. Remember, minor-league baseball went dark in 2020, a lost season of competition and development for rising stars like Liberatore. You might say he’s currently pitching on a “Double-A-plus” level, only in Triple-A stadiums.
Among position players, who among the 2021 Memphis Redbirds might enter the mix in St. Louis? Outfielder Lars Nootbaar missed 20 games with an injury to his right hand, but has put up an eye-popping slash line in his first season at Triple-A: .329/.430/.557 (through Sunday). With the Cardinals’ offensive numbers among the worst in baseball — among 30 teams, St. Louis ranks 27th in on-base percentage and 22nd in slugging percentage — any Memphis hitter with numbers like Nootbaar’s is like a peacock on parade amid a gaggle of geese.
Jose Rondon leads the Redbirds with six home runs and this is telling, as the infielder has been with the Cardinals since being promoted on May 29th. The Memphis lineup is not stocked with bashers, and Rondon’s impact with St. Louis has been minimal (six hits in 13 games). As the season’s midpoint nears, the Cardinals (and Redbirds) need to maximize production from now-familiar faces. Until Double-A Springfield infuses the upper levels of the system with new blood, the I-55 pipeline may be traffic-free.
• The best story this season among former Redbirds on the current Cardinal roster is that of Alex Reyes. The 26-year-old pitcher made his big-league debut in 2016, when he struck out 93 hitters in 65 innings for Memphis as the system’s top-ranked prospect. But a series of injuries limited Reyes to a total of seven innings over the next three seasons. He pitched out of the Cardinals’ bullpen last year, but his workload was just shy of 20 innings in the abbreviated season.
Here in 2021, though, Reyes has assumed the role of closer for the Cardinals, walking the ninth-inning tightrope as though he’s been there before. Through Sunday, Reyes has posted a miniscule 0.82 ERA and earned 17 saves, good for fifth in the National League. The riddle for St. Louis, big picture, will be whether to keep Reyes in a role that limits him (typically) to one inning per game, or to return his powerful right arm to the starting rotation, an area that’s been compromised this season by the injury-related losses of Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, and most significantly, ace Jack Flaherty. Whether in the ninth inning or the first, Reyes should be a difference-maker — if he can stay healthy — for many years to come.
