MLB Trade Rumors confirmed St. Louis has outrighted left-hander Bruce Zimmermann off the 40-man roster, closing the book on one of the stranger short-term roster churns of the summer.
MLB Trade Rumors made it official: Zimmermann is off the Cardinals' 40-man.
The whole thing moved fast. Zimmermann signed a minor league deal with St. Louis back in January after building a career mostly with the Orioles, then spent the first half grinding it out at Triple-A Memphis, where he went 5-3 with a 3.78 ERA and 84 strikeouts across 15 starts. The Cardinals called him up on July 7 for a doubleheader against the Brewers, and he made his Cardinals debut that same day, working 5 innings of long relief and allowing 3 earned runs.
That outing was also his last as an active Cardinal. St. Louis designated him for assignment the very same day, selecting Jared Shuster to take his spot on the roster. Because Zimmermann is out of minor league options, the Cardinals couldn't just quietly shuttle him back to Memphis, they had to run him through DFA and, eventually, outright waivers instead.
Now that he's cleared waivers, Zimmermann sticks with the organization but reverts to Triple-A, where he's expected to slot back into the Memphis rotation. It's a quiet transaction on paper, but it's a real snapshot of what's happening in St. Louis right now: with the trade deadline bearing down, the Cardinals are stress-testing pitching depth, and fringe roster arms like Zimmermann are the ones absorbing the churn.
For a guy who spent parts of 4 seasons in Baltimore's rotation before bouncing to a minors deal, getting one final big league look, even a rocky one, still counts for something. Whether he pitches his way back onto the 40-man before September call-ups is the next thing worth tracking as St. Louis reshapes its staff.