{"id":459797,"date":"2026-02-07T13:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459797\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:42:07","slug":"cardinals-sign-bligh-madris-to-minor-league-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459797\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Sign Bligh Madris To Minor League Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cardinals have signed first baseman\/outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/madribl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bligh Madris<\/a> to a minor league deal earlier this week, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/_chaseford\/status\/2019121254238949465?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reporter Chase Ford<\/a>.\u00a0 The deal apparently doesn\u2019t include an invitation to the Cards\u2019 big league Spring Training camp.<\/p>\n<p>Madris (who turns 30 later this month) is a veteran of three MLB seasons, appearing in 72 games with the Pirates, Astros, and Tigers over the 2022-24 campaigns and hitting .204\/.273\/.286 in 228 career plate appearances in the Show.\u00a0 He has spent his last two seasons in Detroit\u2019s organization on minors contracts, and after getting into 21 big league games in 2024, Madris spent the 2025 season entirely in the Tigers\u2019 farm system.<\/p>\n<p>Injury problems limited Madris to just 60 games last season, with the final 10 of those contests coming on a rehab assignment with A-level Lakeland.\u00a0 The Tigers released Madris in August, and he didn\u2019t resurface until he started posting big winter-ball numbers in Mexico.\u00a0 This recent production and perhaps Madris\u2019 solid career Triple-A production (.252\/.343\/.440 with 59 home runs in 1803 PA) seems to have caught the Cardinals\u2019 eye as the team builds out its minor league depth.<\/p>\n<p>St. Louis is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/02\/cardinals-rumors-add-outfielder-trade-free-agency.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">known to be looking<\/a> for a right-handed hitting outfielder, but Madris swings from the left side.\u00a0 He has primarily played right field during his pro career with a good dose of work as a first baseman and left fielder.\u00a0 Madris played mostly first base in 2025, though that could\u2019ve been a nod to his health situation rather than necessarily a sign of a bigger-picture position change.<\/p>\n<p>Being limited to first base wouldn\u2019t be great for Madris\u2019 chances of returning to the majors, and it also doesn\u2019t help his case that the Cardinals have left-handed hitting starters at first base (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/burleal01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alec Burleson<\/a>) and in left field (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nootbla01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lars Nootbaar<\/a>).\u00a0 Madris does have a minor league option remaining, since the Tigers never called him up to the bigs in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cardinals have signed first baseman\/outfielder Bligh Madris to a minor league deal earlier this week, according to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[188066,49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-459797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bligh-madris","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459797","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=459797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}