Cardinals Cut Infielder Jose Rondon

photo: Jose Rondon (Leones del Caracas)

St. Louis Cardinals announcement

Brian Walton’s take

While I did not expect this, it does not surprise me, either. While Rondon did fine coming off the bench in 2021, he was not a key cog in the Cardinals machine. (The little-used 27-year-old slashed .263/.322/.413/.735 in 90 plate appearances over 63 games.)

José Rondón

For those who wanted the Venezuelan native stashed in Memphis, that would likely not be possible. Rondon exhausted his minor league options before joining the organization and had previously been outrighted as well. The latter would enable him to declare free agency if outrighted again (removed from the 40-man roster).

With infield prospects Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan nearing St. Louis, Rondon’s replacement is probably already in the organization. The two minor leaguers also hit left-handed, a need for the club that Rondon does not meet.

Jose Rondon (LVBP)

The Cardinals also signed experienced MLB infielder Anderson Tejeda to a minor league contract two weeks ago (the same way Rondon became a Cardinal one year ago). So the team has in-house choices behind Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman and Edmundo Sosa, their primary middle infield trio.

As noted in the tweet, St. Louis’ 40-man roster now sits at 36 players. Potential additions may come from the Rule 5 draft, free agent signings and/or trades.

Seven others remain

As expected, the Cardinals have tendered contracts to their seven arbitration-eligible players not already under contract for next season. The 2022 salaries of pitchers Jack Flaherty, Giovanny Gallegos, Dakota Hudson, Jordan Hicks and Alex Reyes, plus outfielders Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill are yet to be settled.

Bader, Flaherty, Hicks and Reyes are in their second of three years of eligibility with Gallegos, Hudson and O’Neill eligible for the first time. All will receive sizeable salary increases for 2022 either via negotiations, or at last resort, via a hearing with an arbitrator.

MLB recently moved up its prior December 2 contract tender deadline to November 30, enabling this housecleaning to occur before the lockout begins. Once that happens starting on Wednesday, December 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, no player signings or even contract-related discussions will be allowed until a new Collectve Bargaining Agreement is agreed to by players and owners. Those negotiations are not expected to conclude any time soon with the game on the edge of what will likely be a lengthy standstill.


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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.

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