Cardinals Call Up Former NC State Catcher Andrew Knizer

With legendary catcher Yadier Molina going to the 10-day Injured List retroactively on May 29th with a right thumb tendon strain, former NC State catcher Andrew Knizer has been called up from Triple-A in Memphis.

Knizner, 24, the Cardinals seventh round selection (226th overall) in the June 2016, First-Year Player Draft out of North Carolina State University, has been the starting catcher in Memphis, appearing in 37 games while batting .286 with 5 home runs, 17 RBI and eight doubles.

He has a career batting average of .307 over 279 minor league games with 30 HR and 155 RBI.  The right-handed hitting backstop has hit safely in 72 percent of his career games not going more than two games without a hit during the 2019 season.

Defensively, Knizner has thrown out 17-of-32 attempted base stealers (53.1%) this season, with his 17 runners caught stealing leading all Pacific Coast League and Triple-A catchers while ranking T-9th among all minor league catchers.

A member of the 2018 Pacific Coast League Championship Redbirds squad, Knizner was named an All-Star in the Midwest League (2017) and prestigious Arizona Fall League (2017).  He was selected to the 2018 All-Star Futures Game for the USA Team in Washington D.C., last July.

Knizner will wear uniform No. 7.

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Knizer is the #2 prospect in the Cardinals farm system.

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