St. Louis Cardinals: Early Spring Returns on Pitching

Johan Oviedo
There aren’t any pictures of Oviedo available to us, so enjoy Kolten Wong’s slick cleats but Oviedo signed with the Cardinals out of Cuba in 2016. The Cuban right-hander boasts a tall, lanky, projectable frame at 6’6″ 210lbs. Oviedo has a good fastball that sits 92-94 mph consistently and can touch 97. His other two offerings project to be major league average, with his changeup being a potentially plus pitch
Oviedo had a decent year in the Minors last year, putting up a 4.72 ERA in 29 appearances, 28 starts. He threw 146.2 innings and registered 163 strikeouts, which bodes well for future Major League projections. A 1.53 WHIP leaves much to be desired, as does 76 walks.
Thus far in spring, he has allowed 1 run in 3.2 innings, striking out 2 and walking 1. While it’s a very small sample size, a 0.84 WHIP shows a huge improvement over previous results. Oviedo projects to be one of the first few to get the next-man-up call should an injury occur.