St. Louis Cardinals make flurry of moves following disappointing homestand

The St. Louis Cardinals are leaving their nine-game homestand with a disappointing 3-6 record. They defeated only the Los Angeles Dodgers in a series, and they lost series to the Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays.

After a superb May, June has not gone as planned for the birds on the bat.

Changes were needed on both the pitching and position player sides of the game. The club's bench was lackluster with Jordan Walker on the injured list, and the relievers were scuffling, posting a 4.38 ERA in the month while striking out only 6.81 batters per nine innings.

A refresh was needed, and the club got just that on Thursday afternoon.

The St. Louis Cardinals promoted RHP Andre Granillo and outfielder Michael Siani while demoting RHP Chris Roycroft and designating outfielder Ryan Vilade for assignment.

Let's start with the position players.

Ryan Vilade is batting just .077 this year. He was promoted after Jordan Walker went on the IL to be the club's fourth outfielder, but he had been outpacing "runway" poster boy Nolan Gorman in plate appearances up until a couple of games ago. Vilade was a non-factor in the lineup, and his designation feels logical.

In his stead, outfielder Michael Siani will return to the major league roster. Siani has been excellent at Triple-A Memphis, posting a .263/.348/.451 slash line with five home runs, 17 RBIs, and eight stolen bases across 33 games. He'll be the club's fourth outfielder more than likely, but he could see some starts with Brendan Donovan nursing an injured toe.

The bullpen has needed a refresh for quite a while now, and it receives some reinforcements in the form of Andre Granillo. Granillo has been off to a hot start in Memphis, and he'll look to provide some strikeout power to a relief corps that is missing it desperately. This is Granillo's first appearance in the majors after being drafted in the 14th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. He'll look to make his debut tonight against the Brewers.

Granillo has a 39.7% strikeout rate this year at Memphis, and he's posted a minuscule 1.82 ERA through 29.2 innings. Batters are hitting just .159 against him. The right-handed reliever won't be used late in games just yet as he warms up to the majors, but he could become a late-game weapon for manager Oliver Marmol. Vilade's designation opened up a spot on the 40-man roster for Granillo.

The reciprocating move for Granillo's promotion was to demote right-handed reliever Chris Roycroft. Roycroft has been shuffled back and forth on the Memphis shuttle all year. He has a 6.92 ERA, and he's struck out only nine batters in 13 innings. For a bullpen desperate for K's, that just won't do.

The Cardinals start a seven-game road trip in Milwaukee before their lone off day remaining in the month of June on Monday. They'll start the road trip with a four-game set against the division rival Brewers. Hopefully, this roster reset gives the club some punch that has been missing over the last 10 days of baseball.