photo: Luken Baker (Memphis Redbirds)
All members of the St. Louis Cardinals 40-man roster are now officially under contract for the 2024 season.
St. Louis Cardinals release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced today (Saturday, March 2) that they have signed all of their 0-3 service time players to contracts for the 2024 season.
Today’s announced signings include the following 22 players: 1B Luken Baker, OF Alec Burleson, INF/OF Brendan Donovan, INF José Fermín, RHP Ryan Fernandez, INF Nolan Gorman, C Iván Herrera, RHP Adam Kloffenstein, LHP Matthew Liberatore, OF Lars Nootbaar, RHP Riley O’Brien, C Pedro Pagés, RHP Andre Pallante, 1B/OF Alfonso Rivas III, RHP Sem Robberse, RHP Nick Robertson, LHP Drew Rom, OF Michael Siani, LHP Zack Thompson, OF Jordan Walker, SS Masyn Winn and 1B/OF Jared Young.
The Cardinals now have all players signed for 2024.
Brian Walton’s take
This is the annual spring rubber-stamp one-year contract announcement for the 40-man roster players not yet eligible for arbitration.
These players essentially have no choice but to take the salary as offered – if they want to play in 2024. The 22 named above, representing just over half of the 40-man roster, accepted what the Cards were willing to pay them, as expected.
However, there is a small positive, or perhaps more accurately, no obvious negatives. There were no renewals.
If any of the 22 did not agree to accept the amount the Cardinals offered (within the terms of the CBA negotiated between players and owners), the team could renew their contract, anyway. Because these players are not yet arbitration-eligible, they have no choice but to take their salary if they want to play, but renewals would send the clear signal they were not happy about it.
For example, in 2019, both Jack Flaherty and Jordan Hicks were renewed. In July 2023, just before they reached free agency, they were both traded away. In the case of Flaherty, there were no reports of long-term contract talks. The Cardinals and Hicks reportedly discussed the possibility, but nothing became of it.
As noted, all minimum salary amounts are defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and owners. The minimum major league salary this season is $740,000, up from $720,000 in 2023.
All arbitration eligible players and six-year-plus players previously came to terms with the team.
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