Cardinals to promote Drew Rom for Monday start

The Cardinals are planning to call up left-hander Drew Rom from Triple-A Memphis to start Monday’s game against the Pirates, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports.

The start will represent Rom's big league debut, just three weeks after he joined the St. Louis organization as part of the deadline day trade that sent Jack Flaherty to the Orioles. Rom was briefly called up to the Orioles back in May, but his two-day stint on the active roster didn’t result in any in-game appearances.

The 23-year-old Rom was a fourth-round pick for Baltimore in the 2018 draft, and he has a 4.75 ERA over 134 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. However, he has looked sharp since the trade, allowing just one earned run over 11 innings and two starts with the Cardinals’ top affiliate. This small sample size in Memphis includes an eye-popping 43.9% strikeout rate, which is a marked step up from even the solid strikeout rates Rom has posted throughout his minor league career.

Baseball America ranks Rom as the 15th-best prospect in the St. Louis farm system, noting that his fastball sits in the low-90s. This seems to be his best pitch, as the BA scouting report feels Rom needs to throw his secondary offerings (a splitter and a slider) in the strike zone more frequently and with greater efficiency to make his overall arsenal more dangerous to hitters.

While this might end up being just a spot start for Rom, it is an opportunity to perhaps earn more innings down the stretch as the Cardinals continue to evaluate players for 2024. Starting pitching is a stated need for the Cards going into the offseason, but even if the front office achieves its goal of adding three new starters, depth is always a necessity, making Rom valuable as a big league-ready starter.