Cardinals’ Rule 5 draft pick Ryan Fernandez faces former team
The Cardinals added a handful of Red Sox pitchers this past offseason, acquiring relievers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos in a trade for outfielder Tyler O’Neill. St. Louis also added hard-throwing righty Ryan Fernandez in the Rule 5 draft back in December.
Fernandez faced the Red Sox on Tuesday afternoon, coming into pitch in the eighth inning with the Cardinals down 3-1. The flamethrower faced four batters, striking out three batters, including the first two of the frame. He retired Niko Kavadas on an 89.3 mph cutter, Corey Rosier on a 90.4 mph cutter, before walking Phillip Sides on four pitches. The righty settled down after the free pass and struck out Tyler Miller looking, firing a 88.9 mph cutter in on his hands for the called third strike.
The former 23rd round draft pick in the 2018 MLB draft will need to stick with the Cardinals all season or he’ll need to be returned to the Red Sox.
The 25-year-old tops out at 99 mph with his fastball while offering four other pitches within his arsenal. Fernandez offers a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup. His fastball and cutter complement each other, missing bats along the way.
Fernandez had a strong season pitching in Low-A and Double-A before being promoted to the WooSox. In 26 games with Triple-A Worcester, he owned a 3-3 record with a 6.16 ERA, 1.57 WHIP and a 10.27 K/9. In 20 1/3 innings, he surrendered 38 hits, 23 runs, 21 earned and stuck out 26 batters.
The Florida native projects as a middle reliever in the major leagues, potentially a late inning hurler. While with the WooSox, he spoke with Beyond the Monster’s Andrew Parker and felt his transition to Triple-A was seamless and wanting to become a closer.
“Just being able to shut the door on the other team.” Fernandez said. “To make sure they have no more confidence when I am on that mound. As soon as I come on the mound, I want them to know the game is over. I love having that feeling when I am in the game. I love having all of the adrenaline and it gives me that mood. When you’re the closer it just is a different animal.”
Last season FanGraphs rated the right-hander as the 27th best prospect in the system. They rated his fastball 50, slider a 70, with a 55 command and 60 potential. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote about Fernandez:
Fernandez is a single-inning relief prospect with some of the best stuff of anyone available in this year’s Rule 5 draft. His four-seamer sits 94-96 mph and touches 97. To call his cutter a secondary would be misleading, as it surpassed his fastball usage at Triple-A, accounting for 48% of the pitches he threw at that level and inducing a 47% chase rate. His use of his gyroscopic slider dipped in 2023, but when he did throw it, it earned him a combined 63% whiffs (73% at Triple-A), and that kind of bat-missing ability is, ironically, nothing to shake a stick at. His strike-throwing ability makes him very likely to stick on St. Louis’ roster and contribute in a middle-inning capacity. This was the first relief-only pitcher to come off the board in the draft, and is the one we feel most confident will have a good 2024.
Besides his explosive fastball, Fernandez is known for his distinguished look on the mound, his mustache.
“It started last year in Spring Training as a joke and it kind of turned into my thing.” Fernandez said of his facial hair. “I was going to shave it off but I kind of started to like it. People started to make fun of it, and it became my thing so now I am just rolling with it.”
