FSL1 Palm Beach Cardinals

Palm Beach Cardinals Release 2018 Opening Day Roster

April 3, 2018 - Florida State League (FSL1)
Palm Beach Cardinals News Release


The reigning Florida State League Co-Champions Palm Beach Cardinals are excited to announce the roster that will be defending its title. The following roster is subject to change dependent on organizational roster moves and/or injuries.

It's a homegrown Palm Beach Cardinals roster as just four of the 26 players did not start their career with the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

"Our entire staff is excited for another Cardinals season", stated Palm Beach Cardinals General Manager Andrew Seymour. "With Dann (Bilardello) and his coaching staff at the helm, this is certainly going to be an exciting season for our Palm Beach fans"

Palm Beach Cardinals Manager Dann Bilardello also gave his thoughts on this year's squad.

"Excited about the team we have here at Palm Beach. We got a good group of guys. I know the effort will be there every night. We're looking forward to the start of the season. Our goal is to improve, move players on, but also stay competitive. We're all excited about that, our whole staff is."

While there will be many new faces in the dugout this year, this will be another go-around for others. Pitchers Junior Fernandez, Mike O'Reilly, Anthony Shew, and Austin Warner will all be back with Palm Beach. Fernandez and O'Reilly saw a considerable amount of time at Advanced-A Palm Beach throwing 90.1 and 54.2 innings respectively.

Half of the position players on the 2018 roster were in a Palm Beach Cardinals uniform at some point in 2017. Those players include outfielders Shane Billings and Thomas Spitz, infielders Jose Martinez and Andrew Young, and catchers Jose Godoy and Brian O'Keefe.

Joining the Palm Beach Cardinals on the Opening Day lineup is seven-year MLB veteran and three time All-Star Greg Holland. The flamethrower recently inked a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals, but will first get some game action at the Advanced-A level.

Highlighting the additions is 2017 fourth round draft pick Kramer Robertson. The LSU grad is ranked the Cardinals' No. 30 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. He played at Single-A Peoria last season, hitting .270 with a .351 on-base-percentage.

Also new to Palm Beach from the 2017 draft class is outfielder Chase Pinder (7th round), infielder Evan Mendoza (11th round) and infielder Jacob Patterson (13th round). Rounding out the position players are infielder Stefan Trosclair, infielder Ryan McCarvel and outfielder J.B. Woodman.

Pitchers from the Cardinals 2017 draft class that will be joining Palm Beach for the first time are Evan Kruczynski (9th round), Jacob Patterson (13th round) and Will Latcham (17th round. Additionally, pitchers Jesus Cruz, Yeison Medina, Mitchell Osnowitz, Ian Oxnevad, Ronnie Williams, and Jason Zgardowski are on the club's opening day roster.

Below is an alphabetical Opening Day roster list, separated by pitchers and position players:

Pitchers (14):

Cruz, Jesus - RHP

Fernandez, Junior -RHP

Holland, Greg - RHP

Kruczynski, Evan - LHP

Latcham, Will - RHP

Medina, Yeison - RHP

O'Reilly, Mike - RHP

Osnowitz, Mitchell - RHP

Oxnevad, Ian - LHP

Patterson, Jacob - LHP

Shew, Anthony - RHP

Warner, Austin - LHP

Williams, Ronnie - RHP

Zgardowski, Jason - RHP

Position Players (12):

Billings, Shane - OF

Godoy, Jose - C

Martinez, Jose - INF

McCarvel, Ryan - INF

Mendoza, Evan - INF

O'Keefe, Brian - C

Pinder, Chase - OF

Robertson, Kramer - INF

Spitz, Thomas- OF

Trosclair, Stefan - INF

Woodman, JB - OF

Young, Andrew - INF

Check out the Palm Beach Cardinals Statistics



Florida State League Stories from April 3, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central