St. Louis Cardinals: Gant optioned; Huffman contract purchased

In an attempt to find more offense the St. Louis Cardinals made a move Wednesday to call up an extra bat for the bench.

The John Gant era in St. Louis was a short-lived one. The right-handed pitcher was optioned back to Memphis today, after appearing in only one game. In his only appearance, Gant allowed three runs, two earned in three and one third innings. In a corresponding move, the St. Louis Cardinals will call up Chad Huffman from Memphis.

The 32-year old Huffman made his MLB debut in 2010 with the New York Yankees. Since then he has bounced around the minors and spent some time in Japan, playin in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Chiba Lotte Marines. Trevor Hooth previously posted about Huffman when he was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason.

For other Redbird Rants pieces on Huffman, jump here.

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This move takes up the last place on the 40-man roster. It is assumed that this move is an attempt to get more power on the bench. In 2016, Huffman had seventeen home runs in 122 games for the Toledo Mud Hens. So far in 2017, he has hit at a clip of .292, while hitting four home runs.

In just his last ten games with the Memphis Redbirds, Huffman- in twenty-three at-bats- picked up six hits, six RBI, two home runs, four walks, and eight strike outs. The promise of power is certainly here and allows the St. Louis Cardinals the luxury of a right-handed option at first to platoon with Matt Carpenter.

And… if you are keeping score at home, this means that two of his four dingers hit this season have happened over the past ten games.

Next: Trade block targets

Huffman will look to join the team tonight in Cincinnati as the St. Louis Cardinals and Reds face off in game three of a four-game series. Huffman presumably will take over the role as backup first baseman to Carpenter and hopefully bring a little bit of power to a roster that hasn’t seem much power to this point of the season.