Former Deering High standout Trejyn Fletcher was given his unconditional release by the St. Louis Cardinals this week after struggling to make progress in the Cardinals’ minor league system since his first summer of professional baseball in 2019.

Fletcher, 22, was a second-round draft pick of the Cardinals, the 58th player taken overall in the 2019 Major League Baseball draft. He agreed to a $1.5 million signing bonus, forgoing a scholarship offer to play at Vanderbilt University.

Fletcher had been playing for the Class A Palm Beach Cardinals in Florida. The outfielder appeared in 21 games this season, batting .205 and striking out 40 times in 78 at-bats. Throughout his four minor seasons with the Cardinals’ organization, Fletcher struggled to make contact, striking out 171 times in 328 at-bats and batting only .198.

An unconditional release means that the club is severing all ties with a player. Because Fletcher was not on the Cardinals’ 40-man major league roster, he is a free agent immediately.

Fletcher started high school at Cheverus in Portland, then transferred to Trinity-Pawling School, a private boarding school in Pawling, New York, where he repeated his freshman year. By the summer of 2019, he was regarded as a potential top-10 draft pick in the 2020 draft. Midway through the 2018-19 school year, Fletcher returned to Portland, enrolled at Deering and announced he was reclassifying back to the Class of 2019.

More than 20 major league scouts were on hand for his season debut that spring, and Fletcher went on to earn the Varsity Maine Player of the Year honors after hitting .455 with three homers and 17 stolen bases. As a pitcher, he struck out 41 batters in 20 innings.

Shortly after being drafted in 2019, Fletcher made a quick move from rookie ball to Class A, where he helped the Johnson City (Tennessee) Redbirds win the Appalachian League title, hitting .228 with two home runs and 18 RBI in 34 games. The coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the minor league season in 2020, and the next year a back injury limited Fletcher to just seven games in the Florida Complex League, a rookie ball league.

In 2022, when he was moved back to Class A, Fletcher floundered, striking out in all 16 at-bats before returning to the Florida Complex League, where he played sparingly and hit .085 with four singles in 47 at-bats.

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