JUPITER, Fla. • Fast-rising righthander Jake Woodford, a 22-year-old Tampa area product, will start on Monday against the Detroit Tigers in the Cardinals’ third exhibition game of the spring.
Woodford, 6-foor-4 and 215 pounds, led the Florida State League in earned run average at 3.10 while pitching for Class A Palm Beach, the league champion, in 2017. Last season he was at both Class AA Springfield and Class AAA Memphis and he threw 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball as Memphis clinched the Pacific Coast League championship against Fresno.
In addition to his league championships, Woodford, a supplemental first-round selection by the Cardinals in 2015, has been an All-Star selection at Peoria in the Midwest League in 2016 and at Springfield last year.