- This topic has 87 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 4 weeks, 1 day ago by
.
-
Posts
-
John King mostly has had better years than he had in 2025. It looks like the HR hurt him in 2025. The only LH reliever that I see up and coming is Hjerpe and I’m not convinced Hjerpe should not be a starter. Add that several voices are calling for Romero to be traded, and we have no left-handed relievers at all.
I hope that the talk of Herrera behind the plate is just a red herring designed to distract fans until the Cardinals figure out who is really going to be catcher. Herrera is an artist when it comes to hitting. But you never know where the ball is going to end up when he is trying to stop a runner from stealing a base.
It is four hours until the deadline. Unless the Cardinals make very late moves to clear more roster room, three will be the maximum protected today. I am on record with my three. How about you?
The Cardinals know John King and, if they intended to keep him, he would have been added already. Somebody will surely claim him. He does get outs. I’d just as soon keep King and let Prieto go. But I don’t believe that will happen.
I agree that Alcala will not be retained.
They need Pozo, for now anyway.
So, I agree with everything Jnevel says in his post, but with a little bit of hedging on King.
I haven’t kept up well with this but if there are only three being kept, I suspect that it’ll be Bernal, Baez and Mautz.
I would like to see King, Roycroft, and Koperniak removed from the 40 man roster, but that seems very unlikely now. I’d rather the team scour the minor league free agents and major leaguers to replace the 2 pitchers above. They can be signed to minor league contracts.
The Cardinals know John King and, if they intended to keep him, he would have been added already.
To my knowledge King has not been removed from the 40 man so they don’t have to add him. The non-tender deadline is November 21. That is when King’s fate will be decided.
Probably the three most mentioned, Bernal, Baez and Mautz and maybe Hjerpe. Of course, they will have to make room if they add 4.
We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/5dkwZBVuDT
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) November 18, 2025
Those 4 make sense. To me, those were all absolutes. I always felt like Jordan was right on the line and everyone else was below it. We will see if he gets taken from us.
We may still see others get dropped by the Friday deadline. I had King being non-tendered and Robberse getting waived just to create some roster space.
My details:
My FREE take on today's #stlcards 40-man roster changes, affecting Leonardo Bernal, Joshua Baez, Brycen Mautz, Cooper Hjerpe and Jorge Alcala. https://t.co/7JTgHze7eG pic.twitter.com/1PjXSwpcoW
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) November 18, 2025
I’m not surprised to see Hjerpe protected. I am pretty sure if they didn’t protect him a team would grab him and keep him on the 40 man over the winter and immediately 60 day IL him when they could and stash him all 26 with the plan to stick him in the pen in 27 after a rehab assignment to start the year.
Really 5 guys were added to protect them, but Torres was earlier. I don’t know if I should read into it, but with Torres being protected earlier I am curious if they see him as having a good shot at the 26 man out of camp pending some competition with Church.
I don’t know if I should read into it, but with Torres being protected earlier I am curious if they see him as having a good shot at the 26 man out of camp pending some competition with Church.
If you trade Arenado & Donovan, Saggese & Fermin are your bench, and Torres is next man up.
Similarly, if they do the right thing and demote Walker to AAA and bring in a RF, with Church as the 4th OF, you have Walker, Baez & Torres battling it out to be next man up.
I’m not 109% sure, but I think anyone claimed in Rule 5 draft cannot be stashed away in IL the next year. I believe they have to stay active for most or all of th e next season.
Hjerpe’s Tommy John surgery was last April. He should be throwing this spring. Had he been unprotected, I would have given it 99% odds he would have been taken. Little to no risk in doing so.
Regarding the IL for Rule 5 picks, if they are injured badly enough, they can be placed on the 60-day IL in the spring. However, the player is not free of his Rule 5 restrictions until he is active at least 90 days. If the 90 days are during 2026, then he is unrestricted at the end of 2026. If the 90 days don’t finish until some time in 2027, his Rule 5 restriction is in place until the 90 days active is reached. That means he would use a 40-man spot in the 2026-2027 offseason even if still injured because there is no 60-day IL then. More likely, if it dragged on that long, he would just be returned to his initial team.
The thing that worries me about Hjerpe is his pitching motion. That sidearm motion looks like an arm or shoulder injury waiting to happen.
Just as a note, I looked at the minor league rule 5. I count around 35 guys that the team both might want to protect and would need protection. Since a team can protect up to 38 players in addition to the players protected on the 40-man, I’m not worried about losing anyone of even remote significance.
Im a little sad to see Pozo go. I can understand why as there is a lot of catchers ready for the bigs. Pozo was a fun guy to personally root for so I hope he gets a backup role with another team.
Not surprised at all on King and Alcala. Robberse is a little surprising as I assumed they would use him as a depth option.
The thing that worries me about Hjerpe is his pitching motion. That sidearm motion looks like an arm or shoulder injury waiting to happen.
What do you mean “waiting to happen”? Its done nothing but happen.
So, if they don’t trade him, Romero is the entirety of our left-handed relievers. They could let Hjerpe pitch an inning or two, now and then, just to get him broken back in to MLB. But, long term, I still see him as a starter.
I’ve given up on Hjerpe as a SP mud. He has had so many injury problems and has had command problems. The bullpen isn’t the desired outcome for a 1st round pick, but Hjerpe could be really valuable out of the pen.
And thanks for correcting me earlier Brian. For some reason I keep thinking Hjerpe had his surgery around the time of Roby. Hopefully Hjerpe does get some time in the pen later next year.
Svanson, O’Brien, Leahy and Graceffo all pitched well vs lefties in over 400 PA’s. A pen that can face both handedness splits requires less holding of your breath on bad matchups (King).
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.