St. Louis Cardinals: Early Spring Returns on Pitching

ST LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 21: Junior Fernandez #44 of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches during the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium on August 21, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 21: Junior Fernandez #44 of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches during the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium on August 21, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 7
Next
JUPITER, FL – FEBRUARY 25: Detail view of Nike shoes worn by Kolten Wong #16 of the St Louis Cardinals during a Grapefruit League spring training game against the Washington Nationals at Roger Dean Stadium on February 25, 2020 in Jupiter, Florida. The Nationals defeated the Cardinals 9-6. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
JUPITER, FL – FEBRUARY 25: Detail view of Nike shoes worn by Kolten Wong #16 of the St Louis Cardinals during a Grapefruit League spring training game against the Washington Nationals at Roger Dean Stadium on February 25, 2020 in Jupiter, Florida. The Nationals defeated the Cardinals 9-6. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

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.