Once the calendar pages turned to 2023 and Max Rajcic was roughly two months away from reporting to the first spring training of his pro baseball career, the Cardinals prospect wrote down three goals for himself for the coming season:
- No. 1: “My first goal was to throw 130 innings,†said Rajcic, who logged 132 1/3 innings across the minor league regular season and playoffs.
- No. 2: “Second goal was to make it to Double-A,†said the 22-year-old, who was promoted from Class High-A to Class AA for the Texas League Playoffs.
- No. 3: “And the third goal was to be the minor league pitcher year. I got to do all three,†he said recently at Busch Stadium during the annual Winter Warm-up.
As a whole in 2023, the 2022 sixth-round pick went 9-6 and posted a 2.48 ERA in 23 regular-season starts for Class Low-A Palm Beach and Class High-A Peoria. Rajcic’s 2.48 ERA led all qualified Cardinals minor league pitchers and was 18th-best in Minor League Baseball. The 22-year-old tied for the Cardinals minor league lead in strikeouts with 123, batting average allowed (.216), strikeout rate (25.2%) and strikeout-to-walk rate (19.6%) while finishing second in WHIP (1.01).
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The righty’s performance earned him Cardinals minor league pitcher of year honors and a spot in big league spring training this year as a non-roster invitee.
“The season was awesome,†Rajcic said. “I feel like I learned a lot just from watching baseball because, like I said, it was 132 games. I’m not playing all 132, so I’m watching a lot of baseball. Just calling a game by yourself in the dugout. Just learning, watching a lot of baseball — you can learn stuff you don’t see every day.â€
He’s anticipating more lessons this spring.
“I’m just going to be a sponge and soak it in and just learn a lot from all the big leaguers we have,†he said. “We’ve got Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn — a bunch of new guys who signed. It’d be really cool to hear from them and pick their brains and learn more about baseball.â€
Along with an open mind, Rajcic (pronounced like “magicâ€) is poised to come into spring camp with a tighter, sharper slider.
While back in his native Southern California, Rajcic’s work this winter has included tweaking a slider that was more of a low-80s sweeper in 2023. He intends to make it a gyro slider that has a sharper bite and more velocity behind it. He feels that paired with his curveball that ranges from 80 to 82 mph, a gyro slider that ranges from 85 to 87 mph gives his secondary pitches a useful change in gears when it comes to velocity.
“I feel like that’d help my arsenal way more,†Rajcic said on the slider work.
The 132 1/3 innings of work Rajcic compiled across 2023 were the most he’s ever thrown in a single year. During his final year at UCLA in 2022, the Fullerton, California, native threw 85 innings for the Bruins but did not add additional innings that summer. He instead had to wait until MiLB’s opening day last April to take the mound as a professional ballplayer.
In an opening day start with Class Low-A Palm Beach, Rajcic struck out seven and allowed two runs over five innings. He posted a 1.89 ERA with 68 strikeouts and nine walks over 62 innings in Low-A before receiving a promotion to Class High-A by the end of June.
He kicked off his Class High-A stint by tossing six hitless innings to begin his debut start and ended the outing with two runs allowed on three hits after the no-hit bid was broken up to begin the seventh inning. He finished the regular season with Peoria, where he had a 3.08 ERA in 61 1/3 frames, allowed a .251 batting average to opposing hitters and allowed one run in six innings during his lone playoff start for Peoria.
“I noticed right away the hitters have a better approach and more discipline,†Rajcic said of the lessons High-A taught him. “Obviously the better hitters from Low-A, they’re going to be in High-A. All the hitters were just a little smarter (and) better disciplined. But I mean, it’s the same game. Sixty-feet, 6 inches ... everything’s still the same game.â€
Following Peoria’s elimination from the Midwest League playoffs, Rajcic earned a promotion to Class AA to join Springfield for its playoff run. The evening after his late-night flight got him to Springfield, Rajcic made his Class AA debut and allowed one run in three innings of relief for the S-Cards.
A “cool†and “weird†debut that checked off New Year’s resolution No. 2.
“That was my goal. I just really wanted to make it to Double-A by the end of the year, which I was glad I got the opportunity to,†the righty said.
As he enters his second season of minor league baseball, Rajcic feels the biggest difference in his offseason preparation is knowing what to expect throughout the season. That includes knowing what he needs to do to stay healthy.
He’ll enter the season with some added motivation after an invitation to Winter Warm-up gave him his first glimpses of Busch Stadium and what being in the major leagues is like.
And he’ll have his new list of benchmarks he hopes to reach.
“Every year I write in my journal on Jan. 1. ... I write my goals. I have a couple of goals this year,†he said.
Goals, he said, that may have to wait until the calendar turns to 2025 to be revealed.