PEORIA, IL - The St. Louis Cardinals and Peoria Chiefs have announced the preliminary roster for the Chiefs 34^th season of professional baseball in the Midwest League. The roster includes eight 2015 draftees, three of the top 10 players in the Cardinals organization ranked by Baseball America and eight players who played at least one game for the Chiefs in 2015. To see the full roster, click here. 

      The top ranked prospects on the 2016 Chiefs roster are OF Magneuris Sierra at #6, SS Edmundo Sosa at #7 and RHP Junior Fernandez at #9. Three other players are ranked by Baseball America  in the 11-30 range with RHP Jacob Woodford at #17, RHP Sandy Alcantara at #19 and RHP Derian Gonzalez at #27.

    The initial opening day roster includes 12 position players and 13 pitchers for manager Joe Kruzel. Of the positions players, five are infielders, four are outfielders and three are catchers. Chris Chinea was drafted in the 17^th round last June out of Louisiana State University and was a catcher/first baseman for State College in 2015. He hit .314 with six homers, 11 doubles, and 27 RBI in 44 games in the New York-Penn League. Jose Godoy was also on State College last season with 36 games played in which he hit .234 with seven doubles and 18 RBI. A native of Venezuela, Godoy signed with the Cardinals on July 2, 2011. Brian O'Keefe played in 34 regular season games plus the playoffs with the Chiefs last season batting .280 with five homers, eight doubles and 21 RBI. He was drafted out of St. Joe's in the 7^th round of the 2014 draft.

     As for the outfielders, Sierra is joined by Craig Aikin, who played for Johnson City, State College and Palm Beach last year. He spent most of his time with SC and hit .248 with seven doubles, 25 runs scored and 12 RBI in 56 games after being drafted in the 13^th round out of the University of Oklahoma. Vaughn Bryan has had each of his last two seasons with the Chiefs cut short by injury. Last year he hit .272 with six doubles and eight runs scored in 24 games before a hand injury in June ended his season. A 2013 35^th round pick out of Broward College in Florida, Bryan had nine triples for the Chiefs in 2014. Sierra, who turns 20 on Opening Day, hit .315 with three homers, 15 steals, eight doubles and 38 runs scored as Appalachian League All-Star in Johnson City last season. The Dominican Republic native began the season in the Chiefs outfield and hit .191 with a home run and three triples in 51 games before joining Johnson City. Thomas Spitz spent all of 2015 with State College batting .233 with eight extra-base hits, 18 RBI, 35 runs scored and 11 steals in 66 games. He was drafted in the 32^nd round last June out of Wingate University in North Carolina.

     On the infield, RJ Dennard will play first base after batting .250 with two homers, eight doubles and 25 RBI in 42 games for State College in 2015. A Georgia native, he was drafted in the 39^th round last June out of Armstrong State University. Eliezer Alvarez led all Appalachian League second basemen in double plays turned last season while hitting safely in 40 of 52 games. Overall the Dominican Republic native batted .315 with 20 doubles, 31 RBI, 32 runs scored and nine steals in 52 games as an Appy League All-Star. Leobaldo Pina will get work in the middle infield and at third base after batting .260 in State College last season with 33 RBI and 12 doubles. He led the NYPL in games at shortstop (67) last season and the Venezuelan native scored 31 runs. Sosa was also an Appalachian League All-Star in 2015 as the shortstop hit .300 with seven homers, eight doubles, four triples, 30 runs scored, 16 RBI and six steals. A native of Panama, Sosa played for his country in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in March in Panama City. Casey Turgeon played 76 games for Advanced-A Palm Beach last season batting .214 with nine doubles and 21 RBI while playing third base, shortstop, second base and outfield. Drafted in the 24^th round of the 2014 draft out of the University of Florida, Turgeon also played six games for the Chiefs last year with two doubles, one triple, three runs scored and a RBI.

     Of the 13 pitchers on the roster, the Chiefs have six starting pitchers. Alcantara was ranked by Baseball America as the #12 player in the Gulf Coast League last season after going 4-4 with a 3.22 ERA and a league-high 64 1/3 innings. A Dominican Republic native, Alcantara struck out 51 and walked 20 in his 12 starts. Fernandez was ranked as the GCL's #13 prospect after going 3-2 with a 3.88 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 51 innings over nine starts. He also pitched twice for Palm Beach at the end of the season with one start and one earned run allowed over 8 2/3 innings. Fernandez was born in the Dominican Republic and signed as an international free agent in 2014 but he played for Varela High School in Miami in 2012 as a sophomore. Derian Gonzalez made 10 starts for the GCL Cardinals last year going 3-5 with a 4.24 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings. The 21-year old was signed as an international free agent in 2012 out of Venezuela. Ryan Helsley went 1-1 with a 2.01 ERA in 11 games and nine starts for Johnson City last season with 35 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings. He was drafted in the 5^th round of the 2015 draft out of Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. Brennan Leitao split last season between State College, where he was a reliever, and Johnson City where he started. Overall he was 1-3 with a 4.06 ERA in 14 games and six starts with 30 strikeouts over 37 2/3 innings. A native of California, Leitao was drafted in the 26^th round last June out of Cal State - Sacramento. Woodford was the 39^th overall selection in last June's draft as a 1^st round Supplemental selection and he went 1-0 with a 2.39 ERA in eight games and five starts. A Tampa, Florida native, Woodford struck out 21 batters in 26 1/3 innings and passed up a scholarship to the University of Florida to sign with the Cardinals.

     The bullpen consists of seven arms, five righties: Landon Beck was in the Chiefs starting rotation last August and will now transition to the bullpen. With State College and Peoria he was 2-6 last season in 13 games and 11 starts with one save. He was selected by the Cardinals in the 25^th round of the 2014 draft out of Anderson University in South Carolina. Tyler Bray split time between Peoria and State College last season going 2-3 with a 4.94 ERA and four saves in 41 outings. He did not allow a run in three playoff games for the Chiefs and was drafted un the 26^th round in 2014 out of Louisiana-Monroe. Steven De La Cruz was signed by the Cardinals as a free agent in February 2014 out of New Mexico Military Institute. Last season he went 2-1 with a 3.21 ERA in 22 games split between Johnson City and State College. With Johnson City he had a team-high six saves and struck out 25 batters in 16 innings. Steven Gallardo was drafted by the Cardinals in the 19^th round of the 2012 draft out of Long Beach City College and he pitched twice in 2012 for Johnson City. However he has missed the last three seasons due to injury including a Tommy John surgery.  Chandler Hawkins is one of the two lefties in the bullpen and he went 4-0 with a 1.84 ERA in 16 games last season with Johnson City. He finished the season with one State College outing and was drafted in the 33^rd round last June out of Arkansas State University. Sasha Kuebel is the other lefty reliever as he returns to the Chiefs after pitching in Peoria in August and in the post-season. A St. Louis native drafted out of the University of Iowa in the 38^th round of the 2014 draft, Kuebel was 3-3 with a 3.60 ERA in 20 Johnson City outings last year and 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in four games for the Chiefs. Cody Schumacher closed out the Chiefs no-hitter against Clinton on July 23 last season and returns to the Peoria bullpen. He went 3-1 with a 3.95 ERA in 21 games for the Chiefs last year with one save. He was also 1-0 with a 3.47 ERA in 14 games for Palm Beach and had one outing with Double-A Springfield. A Topeka, Kansas native, Schumacher was drafted in the 36^th round of the 2014 draft out of Missouri State University.  

     As for the roster breakdown, the Chiefs will start the season with Fernandez (3/02/97) as the youngest player and Schumacher (12/01/90) as the oldest. There are three 19-year olds, two 20-year olds, six 21-year olds, five 22-year olds, six 23-year olds, one 24-year old and one 25-year old. Eight of the players on this roster were drafted by the Cardinals in 2015, six in 2014, one in 2013 and one in 2012. Nine were signed as non-drafted free agents with eight of those being from foreign countries. Seventeen of the Chiefs players were born in the United States while three are from the Dominican Republic, three from Venezuela and one from Panama. Of the US-born players, 12 states are represented with four players calling Florida home and two each from Pennsylvania and California. Kuebel is a St. Louis native while no players are native Illinoisans.