St. Louis Cardinals: Rowan Wick is Another Prospect Name to Watch

The St. Louis Cardinals have a good-to-great farm system filled with rising talent. The farm pitchers rank among these rising stars.

Recently, I wrote about St. Louis Cardinals‘ rising pitcher Corey Baker and his performance in the WBC. This spurred my thinking about the other rising prospects that Cardinals Nation should watch with interest. Included in this list is rising-star Rowan Wick.

Like Baker before him, Wick is participating in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Unlike Baker before him, Wick did not begin his career as a pitcher: Wick started his career as an outfielder and has transitioned to his new role through appearances in A-plus ball.

Before we dig into his pitching career, let’s take a look back at his early career as an outfielder.

Wick was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the nineteenth round of the 2010 amateur draft. He did not sign with the Brewers however as he had just exited high school and instead decided to attend Cypress College in California.

Two years later in 2012, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted Wick in the ninth round of the amateur draft. He signed with Cardinals and first appeared as a 19-year-old catcher in rookie ball. He caught in 2012 in twelve games wherein he caught thirty percent of attempted base stealers.

In 2013, Wick remained in rookie ball where he caught in twenty-five games before moving to right field for twenty-three games. This was the first transition of Wick’s career defensively. Offensively, Wick batted .156/.233/.273 in 2012 and .256/.354/.464 in 2013.

Remaining in the outfield in 2014, Wick advanced to low-A and single-A ball. In low-A, Wick appeared in thirty-three games and he appeared in twenty-eight games in RF and seven games in LF in single-A. Offensively, he posted a .378/.475/.815 in low-A and a .220/.299/.433 in single-A.

His offense and defense numbers earned him the right to promote in 2015 to advanced-A at Palm Beach where he played right field in thirty-two games before transitioning to his new position as a pitcher. Wick was transitioned thanks to his above-average outfield power arm and his diminishing offensive numbers.

The transition was thanks to his willingness to make the transition and thanks to St. Louis Cardinals Director of Player Development, Gary LaRocque.

“I kind of just went with it…I had the best attitude that I could, and I’ve just been going at it since then.” (Wick)

For more information on his transition, jump over and read the June 2016 review written by Nick Krueger.

In his first season pitching, 2015, Wick appeared in two innings, faced twelve batters, allowed four hits, allowed two earned runs, walked two batters, and struck out one batter. This amounted to a miserable 9.00 ERA in the very, very limited sample size. The organization saw enough of what they liked to continue the experiement.

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In 2016, Wick was returned to advanced-A and AA. In advanced-A, Wick appeared in 24.2 innings. He allowed sixteen hits, three earned runs, and six walks. He struck out thirty-seven batters in advanced-A. In AA, Wick appeared in 19.2 innings where he allowed fourteen hits and nine earned runs. He also walked fourteen and struck out twenty batters. His AA ERA was 4.12 while his advanced-A ERA was 1.09.

Elbow soreness had abbreviated his 2015 season and his 2016 season was a cautious one. That said, he did appear in the Arizona Fall League in 2016 where he appeared in ten innings. In these, he allowed eleven hits and five earned runs. He walked six batters and struck out eight. His AFL ERA was 4.50.

Now on the 40-man roster, Wick appeared this spring in two innings, walked one, and struck out one. His limited spring ERA sits at 0.00 since he did not allow a run in his two innings. After his two innings, Wick joined Team Canada in the WBC.

In WBC play, Wick has appeared in one inning. He surrendered no hits but did walk one batter. That said, he also struck out one. Team Canada sits at 0-2 in WBC play and is likely eliminated which will mean that Wick will return to the Cardinals for the remainder of Spring Training. This is a good thing for his development.

Is he a major-league-ready pitcher? By no means but he is an interesting name to watch. Why? Well, he isn’t the first player to make the swap from fielder to pitcher but he does seem to be making the swap with success.

All of this praise aside, I don’t honestly see him remaining with the St. Louis Cardinals. I do see him staying with the organization in 2017 but only to improve his stats. What then? I predict that Wick could well be on the move in the offseason following the 2017 season as part of some package. Nevertheless, keep your eyes open for this name.

Next: 2017 Predictions

What do you think? Is a name like Wick of interest to you? Stick with us here at Redbird Rants this season and we’ll keep you updated on progress of players such as Wick. Thanks for reading and GI CARDINALS!