Cardinals cut Chris Perez; he’ll close for Triple-A Memphis

JUPITER, Fla. — The St. Louis Cardinals optioned reliever Chris Perez on Monday to Class AAA Memphis, where he will be the closer. The move leaves the Cardinals with seven relievers on the active roster — the seven relievers that will make up the major-league bullpen on Opening Day.

“He’s got 100 innings in minor-league baseball,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He needs to work. He needs to work regularly. He can be the closer in Memphis and get valuable experience.”

As mentioned this morning in Cardinal Beat, the Cardinals were weighing between carrying a long reliever into the season or letting March performance dictate that bullpen’s makeup. They sided with role, and Brad Thompson will go north with the team as the long reliever. Kyle McClellan, who got the win in this afternoon’s game against Florida, will also be considered for long relief, though his chief role will be in late-inning setup. His rocky spring did not factor into the discussions, La Russa said, because McClellan’s recent shift on the mound and his work outside of games has shown he knows what to correct — and, La Russa said, “is doing so.” Righthander Josh Kinney takes over the Russ Springer role, coming in during dicey innings like he did today with the go-ahead run on base.

Perez missed more than a week of time with discomfort in his shoulder, and La Russa said Perez’s need to get healthy, need to refine his stuff and the team’s need for a long reliever “dovetails.”

“He needs to work on his stuff and the big leagues are not a place to work on stuff,” La Russa said. “He lacks experience, and he needs to pitch.”

(stltoday.com)