The Cardinals will promote second baseman/outfielder Bryan Torres for their weekend series in Cincinnati, reports former big leaguer Carlos Baerga. Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat reports that outfielder Nathan Church will land on the 10-day injured list in a corresponding move. Church was scratched from this afternoon’s lineup with an undisclosed issue and will miss at least the next week and a half.

St. Louis added Torres to their 40-man roster in November, so they won’t need any further transactions. The 28-year-old would otherwise have qualified for minor league free agency. Torres was coming off an excellent .308/.441/.464 season with Triple-A Memphis.

A native of Puerto Rico, Torres joined the professional ranks more than a decade ago. He signed with the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in 2015. Torres never made it out of rookie ball in the Milwaukee system. He had a brief stop in the Giants organization and was playing in the independent ranks as recently as 2023. The Cardinals evidently liked what they saw, as they added Torres on a minor league deal going into the ’24 season. He spent that year in Double-A and climbed to Triple-A a season ago.

Baseball America ranked Torres the #27 prospect in the St. Louis system over the offseason. They credit him with an above-average hit tool and average speed. Torres has minimal power but offers a bit of defensive flexibility and an OBP-oriented skillset off the bench. He’s out to an even better start in Memphis this year, running a .336/.454/.477 slash with more walks than strikeouts in 166 trips. He very rarely chases off the plate and makes a lot of contact, and he’s 10-12 in stolen base tries.

Torres is nearing his 29th birthday, so he’s not a traditional prospect. He’s in the top five among International League hitters in on-base percentage and doesn’t have much more to show versus minor league pitching. He can replace Church as the left-handed side of a left field platoon with José Fermín and Thomas Saggese for the time being.