ST. LOUIS _ Young relievers Kodi Whitley and Johan Oviedo were significant non-roster additions Sunday to the Cardinals' 44-man roster which will begin drills at Busch Stadium on Friday, preparatory to the start of Major League Baseball's 60-game season to begin on July 23-24.
The remainder of what will be a maximum player pool of 60 players will be announced in the next few days, with those young players to report to an additional camp which will start on Springfield, Mo., on July 14.
The 25-year-old Whitley, who has been a reliever throughout his three-season minor league career, raced through the ranks in 2019, appearing at Class A Palm Beach, Class AA Springfield and Class AAA Memphis, posting an aggregate earned run average of 1.60 with 78 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings. In the Cardinals' spring camp this year, the righthander reeled off six consecutive scoreless outings of one inning apiece, giving up three hits and striking out eight.
The hard-throwing Oviedo worked in four spring games, striking out seven in 5 2/3 innings. This past season, the 22-year-old Cuban righthander fanned 163 in 146 2/3 innings, mostly as a starter, for Palm Beach and Springfield. He did walk 76.
Young righthander Alvaro Seijas, who had a strong season while pitching for both Class A Peoria and Palm Beach this past season, and third baseman Elehuris Montero, hurt for about half the 2019 season, were 40-man roster players who will not be in the Busch camp.
Besides top prospect Dylan Carlson, who seemed sure to be here as a non-roster (so far) player after his .313 spring, first baseman John Nogowski and infielder Max Schrock, both of whom were impressive this spring after playing at Memphis last year, were non-roster position players added to the camp. Catching prospects Ivan Herrera and Jose Godoy also will be there.
Cardinals' 44-man player pool (Busch Stadium)
Pitchers (22) _ Genesis Cabrera, Brett Cecil, Junior Fernandez, Jack Flaherty, Giovanny Gallegos, John Gant, Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, Jordan Hicks, Dakota Hudson, Kwang Hyun Kim, Carlos Martinez, Miles Mikolas, Andrew Miller, Johan Oviedo, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Alex Reyes, Ricardo Sanchez, Adam Wainwright, Kodi Whitley, Tyler Webb, Jake Woodford.
Catchers (5) _ Jose, Godoy, Ivan Herrera, Andrew Knizner, Yadier Molina, Matt Wieters.
Infielders (10) _ Matt Carpenter, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt, Brad Miller, John Nogowski, Rangel Ravelo, Max Schrock, Edmundo Sosa, Kolten Wong.
Outfielders (7)_Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson, Austin Dean, Dexter Fowler, Tyler O'Neill, Lane Thomas, Justin Williams.
