St. Louis Cardinals prospect Tyrell Jenkins Hopeful For 2015 Season

St. Louis Cardinals prospect Tyrell Jenkins hopes to build on the success of the past few months to earn a spot on a Major League roster … hopefully the St. Louis Cardinals roster.

The Peoria Javelinas, which enjoys the luxury of several St. Louis Cardinals prospects, earned themselves a chance to play for a championship in Saturday’s Arizona Fall League title game at about 2 p.m. CT on MLB Network and MLB.com. Jenkins, a right-hander, will be available out of the bullpen in the championship game.

Courtesy Bryan Green/Flickr

On the Peoria club, Jenkins has 24 1/3 innings over six starts and posted a starting pitcher team-best 2.22 ERA. Remember that in the  AFL, players are mostly facing those who have experience at Minor League levels.

Jenkins was 18 when the Cards enticed the 6’4″ athlete away from a Baylor University football scholarship with a $1.3 million signing bonus. That’ll do it, ya know!

Jenkins was the 50th pick in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft. He became one of the top pitching prospects in the organization. Several projected him to become a future top-of-the-rotation arm.

After some struggle, Jenkins is still looking to graduate from A ball. Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, explains that Jenkins has experienced shoulder injuries that have interrupted each of his last three seasons, leaving the prospect with months of rehab work and still no season where he’s eclipsed 83 innings. Ranked by MLB.com as the organization’s sixth-best prospect in 2011, Jenkins has dropped to No. 14 on that list.

In 2014, Jenkins’ season debut was on June 18 where he threw six no-hit innings after a near 12-month hiatus. Jenkins finished the season with a 3.28 ERA, 1.311 WHIP and K/BB ratio of 1.78. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at, so the team included Jenkins in their AFL picks to make up innings.

AFter today’s game Jenkins will return to his home in Texas. He plans to keep up with the Cardinals’ off season moves as he is among the group of players eligible for the December Rule 5 Draft if not protected on a team’s 40-man roster.

GASP!

So. The Cardinals have until Thursday to make those roster decisions and currently enjoy four open spots on their roster. Jenkins told Langosch it would “be awesome” to get the assurance of being protected by the Cardinals this month.

Per Langosch:

"He believes his potential is about to pay dividends, even if later than those initial projections.“I’m fully confident that next year, wherever I start, if I continue to do what I did here and do the things I’ve learned, that next year will be a very big year,” Jenkins said. “As far as how they want to use me and what they want to do, I’m very excited to see what they’re going to do. When the time comes, I’ll be ready to go.”"

It will be nice to see if the Cardinals reward all the hard work Jenkins has put in to improve himself. Hopefully he gets to stay with the team that drafted him and move up the organization. Bolting up to Springfield or Memphis this summer might be a lofty goal, but it’s certainly possible after seeing his AFL numbers.

I look forward to seeing what happens with all that potential for Jenkins! May he remain healthy and we see him more soon!