By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | March 20, 2016, 4:26 pm CT
Following the club’s 5-2 loss to the Marlins on Sunday, the Cardinals trimmed their roster for the second time of the day, sending three players to the minors to cut the number of players in big-league Spring Training to 41 after six cuts Sunday morning.
Outfielder Anthony Garcia was optioned to AAA Memphis, while infielder Patrick Wisdom and infielder/outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez were reassigned to minor league camp.
Garcia, 24, wasn’t expected to crack the club’s Opening Day roster, but did have a nice spring, collecting five doubles, a triple, a home run and six RBI.
Rodriguez hit .300/.440/.400 in 20 spring at-bats while Wisdom hit just .176 in 17 at-bats after dealing with an early hamstring injury. Like Garcia, Rodriguez, 26, and Wisdom, 24, have yet to make their big-league debuts.
[Related: Aledmys Diaz among six cut from Cardinals camp Sunday morning]
Prior to Sunday’s contest, the Cardinals optioned infielders Aledmys Diaz and Dean Anna to Memphis and reassigned catcher Carson Kelly along with pitchers Austin Gomber, Jeremy Hefner, and Deck McGuire to the minors.
With the moves, the club’s Spring Training roster consists of 21 pitchers, four catchers, ten infielders, and six outfielders for a total of 41 players with two weeks before the season opener in Pittsburgh.
MATHENY TO MISS A FEW DAYS FOLLOWING DEATH IN FAMILY
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny will be away from the Cardinals for the next few days following a death in his family, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Matheny left for West Virginia after the redbirds’ loss on Sunday and will return to the club on Wednesday.
