The Cardinals have signed 28-year old lefty reliever Royce Ring to a minor league deal. Ring pitched in 42 games (0 starts) last season for the Braves and he was 2-1 with a 8.46 ERA and a 1.88 WHIP. He has now pitched in 94 games (0 starts) in his major league career and he is 3-3 with a 4.94 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP. This was a decent low risk move for the Cardinals to provide competition in spring training from the left side of the bullpen.

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed 29-year old lefty swinging 2B Joe Thurston to a minor league deal. Thurston appears to be a AAAA player as he is too good for the minors but not good enough for the majors. Of course, he hasn’t really had much of a chance to show what he can do in the big leagues. Thurston played in 4 games for the Red Sox last season and he was 0 for 8 (.000 avg, .111 OPS). He has now played in 59 games in his major league career and he is 15 for 66 (.227 avg, .567 OPS) with 7 runs scored and 2 RBIs. It will be interesting to see if Thurston gets his big chance this season off the bench for the Cardinals.