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Yes, Hicks has options they could use. But unless they want to lose someone off the roster again, the options are Cabrera, JoJo, or Jake Walsh (or a starter, but I don’t think they would do that right now due to timing). Walsh didn’t look that great this spring and is coming off an injury and the other two are both so-so right now and need some tune-ups. So I think they’ll give Hicks a few days off, maybe have him throw on the side once or twice, and try to get him straightened out until they fully see what they have at Memphis. But yeah, he doesn’t need to be coming in for a high leverage situation again for a bit.
On the plus side, VerHagen looked good and Helsley mostly did too. And Pallante was solid Pallante. I’m still convinced we are going to be really good this year and we will win the division by at least 10 games. It’s the best looking team we’ve had in a number of years. We just need to keep Contreras healthy.
I’ve always kind of liked Irving Lopez. And he had a good offseason. It feels like he’s far more deserving that Errol Robinson. But maybe they want Lopez playing close to every day at AA and he wouldn’t do that at AAA. Who knows? But yeah, it seems like the Cards aren’t really behind him or Dunn. Although in this case, I understand not promoting Dunn as he has not played much shortstop. He’s pretty much 2B only. He has no power, isn’t a plus defender, and doesn’t really hit for that high of an average. On the upside, he never strikes out. Irving has a little more upside as he has hit for some high averages and can field more positions.
Wow. 98 from Libby is huge. Especially in the 5th. We may finally have ourselves a pretty good pitcher.
No surprises amongst the pitchers. Loutos moving back to AA might be the only slight surprise, but there were just too many quality arms.
Errol Robinson is the only real eyebrow raiser for me amongst position players, although I’m modestly surprised by Antonini. Robinson wasn’t very good last year. But I’m thinking he’s not going to play much. Just there for emergencies while someone in AA plays every day. Organizational soldier I think. I figured they’d release one of their many catchers. But I think Antonini may be in kind of the same role as Robinson. We’ll see.
Thanks for the updates Brian. This Memphis team should do really well.
Thanks Brian!
Without looking, I’m pretty sure the catcher who got the least looks in Spring training is Antonini, so I guess I’m betting on him being cut as well. Plus the other 3 I mentioned, although I’m probably wrong on Mendoza and maybe Roycroft too.
I’m also very surprised by Dalatri too if that is indeed official. At the time, he was my favorite post-draft signing in 2020. He seemed to improve a lot last year too once he was converted to full-time reliever. Even though we’re stacked with relievers, I still liked him well enough to keep him over probably 10-15 other guys. Very interesting indeed.
BlackHillsCard- that’s crazy. I was actually considering posing a question to see who we thought would be released and Tommy Jew and YaSenka were both on my short list. Beller still is the only surprise for me. Kealey and Roycroft were the other 2 I had my eyes on for pitchers who were above the Complex level. Jew and Jonah Davis were the only outfielders on my list. Mendoza seems like a likely choice on the infield list. And I feel like one of the catchers needs to go to but I have no idea who it would be out of Antoni, Strauss, or Mckeithan. I feel like all 3 are solid contributors who just are never likely to make the majors. But none is really weaker than the others.
I expected Jonah Davis and Levi Prater to be released soon but was a little surprised about John Beller. He had some moments where he was very effective. But we ultimately have too many pitchers so we’ll probably see a few more get the axe before the minor league season opens.
If it were my call, I’d probably try to pass Romero through waivers at this point and take him off the 40-man. I think he’s the worst of our lefty relievers, but it’s very close between all of them (other than Thompson who has been excellent lately). But, we could see a trade or one of the injured guys going to the 60-day – although none of their injuries seems that severe from the reports.
Andre Pallante becomes the new staff ace finishing in the top 10% in ERA and 25% in strikeouts. Alongside solid performances from Woodford, Liberatore, and Matz, it puts to bed concerns about the Cardinals starting rotation in 2024.
Wainwright sadly does not make it to 200 career wins.
Behind Arenado, Burleson becomes the next best hitter on the team.
Carlson puts up a 4.5 WAR season.
Cardinals finish with 99 wins and get a first round bye.
What you’re describing is more likely to be Woodford or VerHagan, who have both looked good also. Thompson is likely going to be a 1 inning guy who will come in to face 2 or more lefties whenever that situation allows for it. At this point, he may be the only left-hander in the bullpen.
Just note that “more than 1 game” isn’t always practical. Sometimes Memphis is playing on the east coast and the Cardinals are in San Francisco or someplace like that. It could be up to 2 or 3 days to get someone there. It just depends. And there’s not really a desire I would guess to put Winn on the 40-man yet because that uses a space that they cannot get back. Whereas with Robinson, they can just try to pass him through waivers and if someone claims him, oh well. They definitely can’t do that with Winn. But I guess if they had a need for a full month at SS, Winn could be considered. Like you said, he can handle the D.
He can stay there as long as the doctor says he’s hurt. They can put him on the 60-day list if it looks like he’s going to be out that long (probably not the case here) and gain a 40-man roster spot. He could also be sent on a rehab assignment for a couple weeks in the minors once he’s released, which may be what happens.
If we have to pay him anyway, why throw away a perfectly good backup shortstop? I guess we could have Burleson and Walker both make the team. But there just aren’t enough at bats for Burleson in that case and it’s a lost season for him. I just don’t see how this helps. I get the DeJong fatigue. This is what happens frequently when we see a guy too long not meet lofty expectations. It seems to have happened to Carlson and Liberatore as well, even though those two are still very young and getting better. If we bring Winn up, it will probably happen to him too because he is just not ready as a hitter yet.
I’m ok if the Cardinals can put Fermin on the bench or Robertson if they can get something for DeJong. But if they can’t, just kicking him off the team makes our team worse. I just don’t see any logic in that. And that’s why he’s still around. Because even though he’s played below what we had all hoped for, he still is equal or better than the alternatives. I think Knizner is a lot less likely to make the team and just get released than DeJong. With Knizner, we probably do have options that will be better.
I disagree with that take. Just because he’s not worth the value that we’re paying him (and he’s almost certainly not) doesn’t mean he isn’t worth anything and we should throw him away. He’s still at least an MLB average shortstop and maybe a little better than that. And, he’s hit better than Motter or Robinson or Fermin his entire career. We saw him way outhit any of them in AAA last year. So there’s just really no reason to release him. A team needs a competent backup shortstop because it’s such a key position. He’ll sit on the bench and watch while we give key at bats to others. That is not sexy. But it’s good smart business because it gives us a solid safety net. I honestly don’t care too much either way. But I’m not going to be upset if they keep him as a safety valve because it’s probably the smart thing to do.
I said Motter is not a SS but he’s playing there today. So I guess he can play it. But I seriously doubt he’s very good at it. But that is another option. We could release DeJong and put Motter in his spot. It’s likely to be the same outcome – limited at bats for Motter only now instead we get a poor fielding shortstop who can hit for some power and we’re paying DeJong’s full salary (minus the $700,00 league minimum) to play elsewhere.
Yes, those are the only options. Unless they trade him. But he has a large negative value so we’d likely be eating almost all of his salary and get nothing meaningful in return. Therefore, the most likely outcome is we keep him as an emergency backup shortstop who can handle the position defensively, but is very likely to be bad as a hitter.
Unless some team is willing to pay more than $2 million of DeJong’s salary this year (knowing that they’ll also owe his $2 million buyout next year), then he likely isn’t going anywhere. He’s just as good as Kramer (both defensively and offensively) and Motter isn’t a shortstop. Someone has to sit the bench so all our other hitters can get at bats. So to me, there’s zero urgency to get rid of DeJong unless someone else is willing to pay for him.
Yeah 1TD – I meant 4th place, not 5th. Thanks for the correction! I get that the Cubs were solid in the 2nd half last year. But the Pirates are quietly getting better and while I think the Cubs may see a slight overall record improvement, I doubt that they get over .500 with their poor lineup combined with average starting pitching and likely a bad bullpen. I see 4 average-ish hitters with Haap being the only one of those who may end up above average. Then the red of their lineup and bench will be poor or abysmal. They just aren’t going to score that many runs – even at Wrigley. The only true upgrade they made is at defense, which is why I think their record improves slightly. But the bullpen is definitely worse. And I think their lineup is likely worse too.
I still think they finish below .500 and I have them in 5th place ahead of the Reds only. I agree they are “trying” but they are doing it in such bad ways.
Dansby Swanson is hitting a solid .042 for Chicago with 2 more strikeouts so far today. Bellinger under .200 as well at the moment, but hey, he’s been there for a few years now.
Interesting that they cut Chambers so quickly. I’d guess he either came to camp out of shape or there was some kind of personality/behavioral issue since he only played one full season.
I think the data supports stlcards25’s assertion that the Cardinals were looking more at results than underlying data. Liberatore had a 1.38 ERA in his first minors season. But his strikeout to walk ratio was poor. Then, in his first full minors season with the Rays, he put up a 3.10 ERA while winning 75% of his decisions. But again, he had a poor strikeout to walk ratio and a little bit concerning WHIP. With Arozarena, he looked like the typical good outfielder that St Louis has produced in droves for the past 30 years. Good defense, solid speed, power enough to put up 20 home runs if everything breaks his way, good average – basically a clone of about 25 other outfielders St Louis has produced over the years. And, since they already had plenty of outfielders and they really needed pitching (in particular left handed pitching), they made a trade from their surplus depth. But the Rays likely saw the underlying abilities of Arozarena when they looked deeper into the data and that’s why they asked for him. And they saw the data on Liberatore and probably thought that while he might one day be an ok MLB pitcher, he was likely to never be anything they would miss. And so both teams got what they wanted. Although the Rays used the underlying metrics data to likely win this trade.
