Cardinals calling up Flaherty for debut

The calendar hasn't even flipped to September yet, but the Cardinals have already announced a key promotion.
St. Louis is calling up No. 3 prospectJack Flaherty from Triple-A Memphis to make his first Major League start Friday in San Francisco, the organization announced Wednesday. That will be on Sept. 1, the first day Major League rosters expand to include members of an organization's 40-man roster. Flaherty isn't on the 40-man yet, but a spot both there and in the Cardinals rotation opened up when the club traded right-hander Mike Leake to the Mariners earlier Wednesday.

Tweet from @Cardinals: Right-handed pitcher Jack Flaherty will start for the #STLCards on Friday at San Francisco.
Flaherty's first big-league promotion comes following a breakout 2017 campaign. The 21-year-old right-hander posted a 1.42 ERA and 0.92 WHIP with 62 strikeouts and 11 walks in 63 1/3 innings at Double-A Springfield before being promoted to Memphis on June 1. He continued to impress in Triple-A, posting a 2.74 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 85 strikeouts and 24 walks in 85 1/3 frames for the Redbirds. Overall, his 2.18 ERA and 147 strikeouts are tops among all Cardinals farmhands.
The 6-foot-4 hurler was the 34th overall pick in the 2014 Draft out of Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he played with fellow pitching prospects Lucas Giolito and Max Fried. He began this season outside MLB.com's top-100 prospect list but jumped up to No. 53 following the midseason update, thanks to strong performances and added velocity that saw him throw in the mid-90's with regularity. Flaherty, who has a plus changeup to go with his slider and curveball, also improved his control -- his walk rate dropped from 8.0 percent at Class A Advanced Palm Beach in 2016 to 6.0 percent this season.

The Cardinals need all the help they can get if they are to overcome a 5 1/2-game deficit in the NL Central race or a six-game gap in the Wild Card race. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak seemed to hint earlier Wednesday that the trade of Leake was done to give young arms like Flaherty's a chance in The Show.
"The development side has produced a lot of live arms, and we're certainly excited to see what they're capable of doing," he told MLB.com. "Ultimately, we got to a point where we thought [the trade] was best for [Leake], best for the Cardinals and best for some of our young players to have this opportunity. That's what really pushed us over the top to do this."