{"id":435766,"date":"2026-01-27T05:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435766\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:08:08","slug":"cardinals-sign-nelson-velazquez-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435766\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Sign Nelson Velazquez To Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cardinals announced their group of non-roster invitees to Spring Training this evening. Corner outfielder\/designated hitter Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a> is among the group, indicating they\u2019ve signed him to a minor league contract.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez, 27, is looking to get back to the majors for the first time in two seasons. He bounced around last year after being outrighted off the Royals\u2019 40-man roster during Spring Training. Kansas City released him in May after he hit .202 across his first 33 Triple-A contests. Vel\u00e1zquez needed to settle for a job in the Mexican League but raked over 49 games there to play his way back to affiliated ball. He latched on with the Pirates on a minor league deal and played the final month with their top affiliate in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

The righty-hitting Vel\u00e1zquez carried over his strong form from Mexico in his second look at Triple-A pitching. He closed the season with a .284\/.329\/.554 line with five homers in 79 plate appearances. It wasn\u2019t enough to get an MLB call from the Pirates, but he secured a non-roster invite from St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez has split his major league work between the Cubs and Royals. He went on a power barrage in the second half of the \u201923 season, slugging 14 homers over 40 games after the Royals acquired him from Chicago. That\u2019s his only real run of big league success, as he struggled on either side of that scorching stretch. Vel\u00e1zquez has a .212\/.286\/.433 batting line in 615 plate appearances, essentially the equivalent of one full season. He has 31 homers in that time but the batting average and on-base marks haven\u2019t been sufficient.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals are amidst a rebuild that should open some playing time in the outfield. They already did so indirectly with the\u00a0Willson Contreras<\/a> trade, which is expected to bring\u00a0Alec Burleson<\/a> in from the outfield as the primary first baseman. St. Louis could move left fielder\u00a0Lars Nootbaar<\/a>, although they may prefer to wait until midseason to show his health after postseason heel surgeries.\u00a0Jordan Walker<\/a> is lined up for another look in right field in what looks like a make-or-break year for the former top prospect. There\u2019s less opportunity available at designated hitter, where\u00a0Iv\u00e1n Herrera<\/a> will get the majority of the playing time when he\u2019s not catching.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez has some similarities to Walker and current prospect Joshua Baez<\/a> as right-handed power bats. The Cardinals certainly aren\u2019t going to force him into the lineup over younger players who could be core pieces. He\u2019s their only non-roster outfielder with MLB experience and seems likely to open the season at Triple-A Memphis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cardinals announced their group of non-roster invitees to Spring Training this evening. Corner outfielder\/designated hitter Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,180998,82],"class_list":["post-435766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-nelson-velazquez","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}