40 Man Roster at Season’s End

We are at 40 total players are the 40-man today (counting those returning from the IL.

5 days after the World Series VerHagan will become a free agent. 39 total.

The Cards need to make arbitration offer decisions by Nov 14. I don’t really have a great feel with what they will do with Knizner. I believe they will go ahead and make him an offer but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on the team come Spring. My guess is that everyone gets an offer except Jacob Barnes and Jake Woodford. O’Neill is still likely more valuable than that offer and I believe Hudson is too. John King is the only other question mark here. He might be non-tendered. His salary figure would be relatively small though and he pitched solidly for us after the trade so I think they may keep him. 37 total.

Then by November 17 they need to add Robberse and Kloffenstein to protect them. Remember they may also choose to protect Bedell and Pages, but I am projecting that they do not. I think they’ll also look to quickly sign 1-2 free agent players (1 starter and maybe a reliever). Plus, given our draft position, I think they’ll want to keep 1 spot open for the Rule 5 draft in December. Therefore, I’m projecting 2 additional guys getting dropped off the 40 man to give them enough room. The Buddy King waiver claim is kind of confusing to me because it doesn’t make much sense since we already have several 2B/3B guys with Fermin really being the only one who can backup SS. If it were me, Buddy King would be 1 of the 2. But it’s not me and I have to think the Cardinals picked him up for a reason. So I’m going to project that Wilking Rodriguez gets offered back to the Yankees and that the Cardinals once again DFA James Naile. Conner Thomas, Packy Naughton, Moises Gomez, and John King (from above) are the others that are in the conversation as cuts.

So in summary, VerHagan leaves via free agency, Barnes and Woodford are not offered arbitration and released, and then by Nov 17, Robberse and Kloffenstein are added and Wilking Rodriguez and Naile are designated for assignment.

There’s a good chance I’m wrong about someone on the list, but so far so good. I’m really curious to see what happens with the catching situation, who gets added for the Rule 5, and obviously what pitchers get signed or traded for. There are a lot of moving parts that will be happening all at once. It should be a fun ride.

Euro, it’s just a general thought due to the fact that we’d get the 5th or 6th selection so it’s an opportunity to add to our bullpen. We usually don’t get to pick until around 18-25.

I only pay attention to the Cards farm system so I have no idea who might be available. But early on in the Rule 5 there are typically some interesting players because some teams have stockpiled players and they run out of space to protect all of them. You typically are not going to get an impact player but you might get a productive role player for free.

He got Jared Young for nothing and he used the cash he got from sending out Adolis Garcia a few years back to get Riley O’Brien. We will see how that one plays out.

Honestly though, I’m not sure what is going on. O’Brien makes very good sense. He was effective at AAA last year, strikes out a lot of guys, adds RH depth, and he has options (I think anyway). But first Kennedy and now Young? I’m really not sure where they are headed with these guys. But the good news is they cost us nothing and we can try to pass them through waivers ourselves tomorrow if we want.

Young is a little more interesting than I initially thought after looking into him. He makes more sense than Kennedy did. I think I’d rather have Young over Yepez and maybe over Gomez too. Young has some positional flexibility and he hit really well this past year with both power and average plus he gets on base. I think he’s a keeper at least into next season. Some of the others will have to go to make room for at least 2 Rule 5 guys and at least 2 other open spots for a free agent signing and a potential Rule 5 pickup. I now believe Kennedy will try to be passed through waivers along with Naile and Wilking Rodriguez will be offered back to the Yanks. For the last spot I’m going to go with Yepez. It’s a shame because he once looked to have a lot of potential, but boy did he not show any of that this season.

Also, this is a roster crunch thing where O’Brien would be a minor league free agent if he’s not put on the 40-man roster. The A’s have a lot of guys that are similar to O’Brien – depth pieces that may or may not work out. Heck, they collect them like crazy. But they made the decision to let this one go for cash (which they always crave). It’s not a ringing endorsement of O’Brien by any means. But all we need to do is justify why he’s better than the 38th or 39th or 40th guy on our roster and if he is, then it’s a risk worth taking.