St. Louis Cardinals: Stupid games win Yairo Munoz stupid prizes

After a strange series of events, Yairo Munoz is no longer a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. What in the world happened?

The St. Louis Cardinals announced their first round of spring cuts on Saturday and 14 players have been sent to various minor league affiliates.

The release also included a note that nobody saw coming. Yairo Munoz is no longer a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Last week, Munoz went down after injuring his hamstring and apparently just left spring training and headed back to the Dominican Republic?

Munoz was acquired from the A’s in the Stephen Piscotty deal two years ago and had a chance to make the roster after serving as a utility infielder for the last two seasons. 2018 was Munoz’s rookie season and the infielder hit for a .763 OPS which was encouraging as a backup.

2019 went much worse for Munoz as he only played in 88 games and his OPS fell by over 100 points. Defensively, Munoz could play almost anywhere around the diamond but was universally below average. Munoz was having a good spring as well, but apparently got fed up and just left.

The more that comes out about this story, the more I think people are going to turn on Munoz. Munoz really showed his colors here. Leaving camp was a childish and stupid move and getting released is what he deserved.

If Munoz was this immature and was complaining last season about playing time, something like this makes sense. At the age of 25, you would expect him to act like an adult, but that is apparently difficult.

With the Cardinals’ signing Brad Miller and the continued rise of Edmundo Sosa, Munoz likely wouldn’t have made the Opening Day roster, but he certainly would’ve been in the MLB for at least part of the year.

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On Munoz, John Mozeliak said, “Trying to determine what is the next, best step, we just decided based on what we’re hearing from his agent maybe cutting ties make the most sense. He just wasn’t happy here, and was frustrated with how he was used last year. Didn’t like the writing on the wall that he was seeing this year.” This quote was pulled from this article from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The move makes obvious sense from the Cardinals’ standpoint and kudos to them for making this move swiftly. A player who is obviously unhappy and frankly, one that isn’t that good, should not have a job.

What this does do though, is open up a spot on the 40-man roster. Do you know who’s not on the 40-man? The spring training OPS leader (among qualified hitters), Dylan Carlson. Carlson was going to have to be added to the 40-man eventually and this is an easy time to get it done. It also takes away one more obstacle to Carlson making the Opening Day roster.

At the end of the day, Munoz had one solid season but was not a great player and wouldn’t have played a huge role in 2020. His decision was truly baffling and as the title says, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Adios Munoz.