ST. LOUIS -- An accomplished hitter at the Minor League level and someone two seasons removed from being the Most Valuable Player of the Texas League when he made a push to win that league’s Triple Crown, Thomas Saggese was a bit jarred when he got to the big leagues and realized his whole approach to hitting would likely need to change.
Finally, after working for weeks to become less of a free-swinging hitter and one who places more value on patience and pitch selection, the Cardinals infielder is starting to show his potential at the MLB level.
A day after tying a career high with two walks, Saggese’s selectivity paid off on Thursday when he drilled a fastball off the wall to plate Masyn Winn and give the Cardinals the lead in what would become a 4-1 win against the Pirates.
While stressing that learning patience at the plate is still a work in progress, Saggese said he is starting to see the benefits of only swinging at pitches that he can hit hard.
“It’s definitely a balance,” said Saggese, whose double was the first go-ahead RBI in the seventh inning or later in his brief MLB career. “The more pitches you take, you have to be OK with giving some strikes to the pitcher. But that’s necessary to do at this level because hitting is hard. If you just put the ball in play and you don’t do damage, that hurts you as a hitter. So, I’m definitely trying to focus on getting pitches that I can drive. It’s just about reps and it’s always going to be a work in progress.”
Saggese, 23, drove Yohan Ramírez's 94.9 mph fastball off the base of the wall in right-center in a 1-1 game to finally jump-start the Cardinals slumping offense. A pitch later, Jordan Walker hit the first pitch he saw -- an 84.4 mph sweeper -- for a Statcast-projected 404-foot home run.
The victory allowed the Cards to snap out of a funk where they had lost seven of their last eight games at Busch Stadium. They lost two of three to the Rockies, got swept by the Yankees and dropped two of the first three to the Pirates after scoring just three runs on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. The Cardinals avoided dropping eight of nine at home for the first time since April-May 1996.
“[Saggese] made my job a lot easier -- tie ball game, man on first base and he goes back side with the double and that was super huge for us,” Walker said. “My job was a lot easier to put the ball in play and move [Saggese] over, preferably with something in the air. That was the mentality, and I was happy to hit it over the fence.”
Saggese has had to change his offensive mentality at the MLB level despite repeatedly proving himself to be an elite hitter in the Minor Leagues. He hit .312 in High-A and Double-A in 2022 at 19 years of age, and he destroyed the Texas League in 2023 when he hit .318 with 25 home runs and 107 RBIs.
Then, after getting a taste of the big leagues with the Cardinals in 2024, Saggese torched Arizona Fall League pitching to the tune of a .391/.524/.594 slash line.
An old-school hitter who doesn’t wear batting gloves and prefers feel over a heavily mechanical hitting approach, Saggese has had to adjust at the big-league level because of the quality of pitching. He walked just twice in 49 at-bats with the Cardinals in 2024 and he two free passes in his first 87 at-bats this season. Slowly, he’s developed a more patient approach at the plate by working before games to be more cognizant of pitches.
“[On Wednesday], he was patient and took his walks and today he swung the bat well and that’s the progression you’re hoping for,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said of Saggese.
Added Walker: “There’s not a lot of people who work harder than Tommy. You see him every day in the weight room, video room, in the cage or out in the field. He’s always working on every aspect of his game.”
Saggese said he hopes to get to a point where being more selective at the plate feels more instinctual to him. Then, he said, he feels he can thrive as a hitter for the Cardinals.
“I go away from what has worked for me too often, and I’m trying to get back to what I’ve done well in the past,” Saggese said. “Obviously, this level is harder, but I do believe when I was at my best in the Minor Leagues that I am capable of doing well at the big leagues as well.”