St. Louis Cardinals Make BOLD Moves to Shield Top PROSPECTS from The Rule 5 Draft!

St. Louis Cardinals Make BOLD Moves to Shield Top PROSPECTS from The Rule 5 Draft!

The St. Louis Cardinals continued solidifying their future by protecting multiple young prospects and placing them on the 40man roster. Which players were deemed worthy of protection? Find out on today’s episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Hey there Cardinals fans. I’m JD Hafford, a former national radio sports anchor born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome to Locked on Cardinals, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. You can follow us on the socials at Locked on Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. Thank you to our everydayers for continuing to be here with us. For those of you who are new, welcome in. Hope you enjoy the content. This is a show that serves Cardinal Nation and gives you the best info about the birds on the bat. Today’s episode being brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So download the app today. On today’s show, we had our first legit trade this off season. Uh it was it was interesting and even though it didn’t involve the Cardinals, we’re going to take a look at it and how it might uh affect possible deals involving the team this off seasonason. But we’re going to start today with the moves that the team made on Tuesday involving four prospects. Two of them pitchers and two of them position players. One of them is a top 100 prospect according to MLB pipeline. All four of them were selected to the major league roster aka put on the 40man roster. And all four of them are ranked in the Cardinals top 30 prospects in the organization according to MLB pipeline. So these were guys that you know are seen as to have bright futures and solid ceilings and were deemed worthy enough to protect from the rule five draft which will take place in December. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with what the rule five draft is, I know some of this stuff it’s tedious. You’re like, “What? Huh? There’s another draft?” Yeah. Well, it it takes place in December. It’s going to be on the 10th uh during the winter meetings. It’s where teams can select players from other organizations, minor league systems, okay? And they they can select from guys who are not on the 40man roster. Now, to be eligible, players must have been in the minors for four or five seasons depending on their signing age and not have been protected by being added to the 40man roster, which is what the Cardinals did yesterday. Teams that uh have open spots on their 40man roster can then make selections. But if they draft a player from another organization, they got to pay a fee and they got to keep that player on their much tighter 26-man MLB roster for the entire season or they must offer them back to the original team they took him from. And if that happens, uh, they can move them to the minor leagues if the other team says, “Nah, we’re good.” And, uh, you can move on. The Cardinals did that with Ryan Fernandez a couple years ago. If you remember, they took him from the Boston Red Sox in the rule five draft, kept him on the team. He had a solid season and then things fell apart uh for him last year. So, we’re hoping he’s a bounceback candidate here in 2026. Uh but the Cardinals had plenty of solid names to make decisions on, but in the end, they had three spots available on the 40man and actually created a fourth one when they designated pitcher Jorge Alcala for assignment. He was claimed off waiverss by the Cardinals last year. got a nice arm and all, but he he there wasn’t much that stood out about him during his time with the team. Uh RA over five in 15 appearances. very similar to Radar Munoz uh who they just lost on waiverss but uh you know it’s arm talent which is fine but for whatever reason has not found success at the big leagues whether it’s uh being able to throw strikes uh not having any secondary pitches to to get outs like it’s you know there’s a number of different reasons so uh Alcala now u designated for assignment so no longer on the 40man so that gives you four spots the four names that the Cardinals were hoping to uh you hang on to and hope will pay off in the future. Uh at some point were added to the 40man in those places. You had catcher Leonardo Bernal, outfielder Joshua Bayz, and left-handed pitchers Cooper Jerpy and Bryson Mottz. Now, the cream of the crop as far as the rankings go is Leonardo Bernal, who was ranked number four in the organization and number 92 in MLB Pipelines top 100 list. Get a look at him here on uh on the YouTube there. Um, but he’s not currently in the top 10 catchers. I do wonder if that’s going to change uh as time goes on as we get into the season for the 2026 season. Uh, because the guy obviously is talented uh, switch hitter can swing the lumber pretty well, but he also just won the minor league gold glove awarded catcher, which you know that spans across all of minor league baseball. It’s not just the level that that particular player played at. So, it’s pretty big deal when you when you snag one of these, especially at the catching position where uh his, you know, big star by this part was where he threw out 27 of 69 base stealing attempts. Spent the whole season at DoubleA Springfield, helped them win that championship. Hit 247 with 13 home runs and 70 RBI’s in 107 games. Uh and just under 400 total at bats this year. uh he along with top catching prospects right now Rodriguez are are part of the the excellent depth that the Cardinals have at the backs stop position along with guys at the major league level already Ivon Herrera Pedro Pahz and Jimmy Krooks it’s why we continue to hear rumblings that teams are are standing by just in case Bloom would want to deal away any of them at some point because not every organization can produce catchers and the Cardinals at this moment have been able to do that and got some pretty decent one. So, we’ll see if anything ever gets done with those guys. Uh the next biggest name on the list, and I mean big is outfielder Joshua Bayz. Um also found a lot of success at DA Springfield this year. 22 years old, former second round pick in 2021. Had a breakout season here in 2025. Now, he started the season with high a poria and then got promoted to Springfield where he hit a combined 287 with 20 home runs, 79 RBI’s, and 54 stolen bases and did all of that in just 117 games played. Most of that damage came at double A where he hit 271, 16 home runs, 55 ribbies, and 34 stolen bases. Did all of that in just 79 games for Springfield and less than 300 bats. He just went crazy last season. And I I reposted, if you follow us on X, I I reposted some of the highlights from Bayz’s 2025 season and he just looks like a baller, dude. You know, sometimes you can just look at guys and say, “That guy looks like a freaking athlete.” Now, now they don’t always pan out, but Bayz when you see this man looks like an athlete. had a wrist injury early on in his career which might have stunted his growth just a bit early on but my goodness what a season he had. You know how I talk about the Cardinals needing to develop a a star offensive player. Somebody they can really build around be like look this is a special guy not just very good but a special guy. Bias is 63 220 pounds power speed what a combination he’s got there. That’s elite stuff. and he’s got a 60 great arm in the outfield that he’s got a cannon out there as well. Lot of fun tools on that young man and with not a a whole lot of top outfield prospects in the organization right now might have a quicker and clearer path to the big leagues than people think. Couple guys get moved, some injuries, and all of a sudden we’re looking at is Joshua Bayz ready to come up to the major leagues in 2026? We’ll see. You hope that you don’t have to do that. You hope that some of the guys that they got out there already, aka Jordan Walker, Victor Scott got it locked down in center field, but really I’m kind of focusing on Jordan Walker here. You hope that he finally busts out the way that Bayz just did a double A. I would assume Bayas will start at Triple A this year and we’ll see where things go from there. But say Lars Newar gets traded and say Brennan Donovan gets traded. That’s some of your outfield depth right there that you’re going to have to find somebody. Somebody’s got to come up and play. So maybe Bayz does uh make an appearance at the big league level at some point in 2026. If things go great for him and he’s just mashing at Memphis, why not? Why not, right? Uh coming up next, we’re going to discuss the pitchers that they kept on the 40man. Both of them are lefties. One of them is a former firstrounder. We’ll get into that next coming up on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Now, even if you missed the start of the game, it’s okay. We’ve got the live bets. 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Thanks for making locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. And thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. Now, if you enjoy daily Cardinals content, you can follow the podcast on X at L_Cardinals. You can find me as well on there at JD Sports Radio. We’re also on YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram at Locktown Cardinals. Young controllable starting pitching is something that Hine Bloom and the Cardinals are desperately looking to acquire this off season. You’ve got names like Nolan Aronado, Sunny Gay, Vernon Donovan, Wilson Contraras, Lars Newar seemingly available for the right price and the right deal. Natto, Gray, Willie, they have to approve these deals because they have no trade clauses because apparently Mo was just handing them out. No big deal, you know. Um, but the Cardinals are going to try to get as many arms as possible. That that that is the goal. As we know, you can never have too much pitching. Most of the time, guys are going down, they’re getting hurt, they don’t perform well. You just want to have so much available that you can just keep restocking that. and you can use those pieces at some point to make deals to go get other needs. So to see the team add two pitchers to the 40man, that was not a surprise. The additions of Bernal and Bayz, those were no-brainers to me in my opinion, but there were a few pitchers that they had to decide between and ultimately they landed on former firstrounder Cooper Jerpy and Bryson Mottz. Now the 24-year-old Jerpy is a former 2022 national pitcher of the year in college at Oregon State. Went 11-2 in 17 games with a 2.53 RA, 161 whiffs and 103 and a third innings. Cardinals took him 22nd overall that year. And although he has been decent when he’s been on the field, it’s keeping him there that has been the problem. injuries have robbed him of a lot of his professional career thus far. And he missed all of last year following Tommy Jen’s surgery. Now, if you’re looking at the picture that I have up on YouTube, you can see just the torque that goes into that elbow that Cooper Jerpy just uh had put back together. So, he missed all of last year following Tommy John’s surgery. He’s currently ranked 13th in the organization. And he reminds a lot of people of, you know, you’ll see the comparisons about Braves Young Award winner Chris Sail. Uh, obviously that’s a great comparison. I also see there used to be a starter with uh the Dodgers and I believe he’s with the Reds. He’s been with a couple teams, but Alex Wood, if you remember, Alex Wood reminds me a lot of him as well. It’s got this very unique mix of sidearm three quarter type of delivery that it’s just funky. It’s it’s funky looking. It’s unorthodox and it makes it like, you know, when left-handers have to face him. It looks like he’s throwing from behind them. They used to say that about Randy Johnson back in the day, too, which drove left-handers nuts where he’s so long and he would have, you know, where he would release the ball from. It was like he was throwing it from behind your head. And that’s kind of what Cooper Jerpy’s got going on here. Tough arm slot to pick up. Lots of movement on his stuff. The dude can be downright nasty. The real question was, would some team take a chance at keeping him on their 26-man roster to take advantage of his potential? And the Cardinal clearly were not willing to risk that. So, he gets the shield. He is safe and will be a part of the Cardinal 40man roster. And hopefully he comes back here in 2026 as healthy as ever and becomes somebody that they can rely on down the road because like I said, he he’s got some nasty stuff. The fourth and final guy, fellow 24y old left-hander Bryson Mottz, ranked 21st in the organization. He was a second round pick in 2022 out of San Diego. And I noticed this when I was doing the research, and everydayers will will know this for sure. When I go back to drafts and I kind of like to look at, h, you know, who could they have taken or who should they have taken instead? And this is one of those moments where I’m like, all right, let’s go see. Four picks later, four picks later, the Brewers selected a guy that you’ve heard of now. His name is Jacob Miserowski, aka the Miz. And I look at it and I go, “How did you miss this guy when he was literally playing in Missouri at one of my old colleges that I went to, Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri. I know it very well. When I went to school there, it was school, baseball, and they had a a Walmart superstore. That is all we had to do. Kids would get their trucks together and hang out in the parking lot. That is what we did. Not a whole lot to do in Neoso, Missouri, except play baseball. And that’s what we were there to do. And Jacob Miserowski was there lighting it up in Missouri. And the Cardinals didn’t take them. and it ended up being a pick for the for the Brewers who are loving life because of it. Kind of frustrating when you go back and look at it. But anyway, let’s focus on the good, right? Let’s focus on Mottz. Not his fault. This past year at Springfield, 8 and3, 2.98 RA and 25 starts. We like that. We like that. Opponents hit just 219 against him. He struck out 134 batters in 114 and two-thirds innings. Uh the scouting report for for Mottz reads like this. throwing from a low threequarters slot. 6’3 southpaw has added some VO with Springfield now was in the 91 to 95 mileph range with enough ride to get decent whiffs. His slider has long been his best pitch with good depth to play off that heater and generate misses. And he’s added a cutter to keep ridies off balance. His mid80s change up has shown improved movement in recent years, but still doesn’t miss many bats, making another option necessary against opposite side bats. He can also flip in a 79 to 81 mile perph curve ball to steal strikes even with the added velocity. Monsters control has steadily improved throughout his time in pro ball and he has enough pitches in his arsenal to keep getting starting looks. What they’re saying there is that the Cardinals did tinker with the idea when they sent him to the Arizona Fall League back in 24. they had him come out of the bullpen mostly because I mean I guess because you want to see what he’d be like but at the same time uh because they he had hit you know thrown enough innings so they didn’t need him doing starters innings but his numbers were not very good at the AFL in 24 coming out of the bullpen but I suppose it’s always an option if it’s needed but um Mottz is somebody that clearly they like they they like what they they have with him they got a nice little grouping of lefties when you look at it if if Jerpy becomes what we think he will. Uh if um who else we got? Quinn. Yeah. Yeah. Uh just coming off a a pitcher of the year award winner a couple of years ago. So uh you got Quinn Matthews, you’ve got Liberator, you got Mott. So nice grouping of left-handed starters right there to to work with. So uh I hope they all pan out. Right. So, those are the four names, which leaves off some names that are current. So, you know, they’re certainly familiar, but these aren’t guys that you’re like, “Oh my gosh, how could they do this?” You know, infielder Bla1 Jordan, who they got in the Steven Mats deal with the Boston Red Sox, didn’t have a huge year at TripleA. Uh, obviously there’s room to grow. He’s still very, very young. Would somebody really take him and stick him on the 26-man roster for the whole year? Probably not. So, you feel kind of safe there. Pete Hansen was a name that was brought up at MLB.com that they thought was a bit of a tough decision to keep him or to not keep him because they think that he might be a guy that could get drafted. Uh we talked about that on Monday, but they left him unprotected. Former Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year in 2023, Max Ratchick. He wasn’t protected, so that’s somebody. uh 23-year-old outfielder Miguel Lugu who just hit 350 with 16 ribbies in 17 games in the AFL. He was left off. He could be available. But again, you got to remember that teams have to keep them on the 26-man roster. So, are these any of these guys ready for Major League Baseball yet? Do they feel like that they’re worthy of a spot on the 26man roster? And that’s where the Cardinals had to look at and go, “Okay, who’s really at risk here? Who’s really at risk about getting taken?” John didn’t mention some names. Uh, outfielder Mike Antico, who we’ve had on the show before, solid minor leaguer, could be a solid worth outfielder in in the in the major leagues, but hasn’t ever ascended to that next level. Pitcher Randell Clemente, pitcher Alex Cornwell, infielder Noah Meninger. notable names that could be taken away from the Cardinals. If it happens, it happens. But none of those guys were really guys that you’re banking on being a huge part of your future, at least as of right now, from things that I’ve I’ve gathered. Uh again, just because they aren’t protected doesn’t mean they’re going to get drafted, that you’re automatically going to lose these guys, but it is a risk that you take when you don’t have any other spots available, and that’s where the Cardinals are. So, um, thoughts, comments on who they decided to protect and who they didn’t. I think we kind of nailed this talking with Thomas Coane on Monday. Uh, he picked three of the four and that was only because there wasn’t a fourth spot available just yet, but picked three of the four. We both said that Jerpy was somebody that we think you need to as well if you’re if you get a spot available. So, I think we kind of nailed this one, boys and girls, if there’s girls watching. Uh late last night there was an MLB trade between the Angels and the Orioles. Similar deals are what the Cardinals should be looking into as well. I’ll explain what I mean by that coming up next on Lock on Cardinals. Thank you for making Lock on Cardinals your first listen every day. For your second listen, check out Locked on MLB hosted by my guy Sully. He’s going to bring you a daily blend of humor in baseball throughout the off seasonason. You can find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. So, the Angels traded right-handed hitting outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles on Tuesday night in exchange for former top pitch prospect Grayson Rodriguez. Many will remember that name. Uh former first round pick. It was not that long ago that he was supposed to be one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Uh, an interesting move for the O’s who give up multiple years of control of a pitcher like that who had a ceiling like that. Future ace of the staff is what people were saying just a few years ago in exchange for Ward who is a solid major league hitter. No doubt this past year set a career high in home runs at 36, doubles 31, RBI’s with 103, but he’s only one year away from free agency. It’s not like they’re going to have him under control as of right now. I mean, obviously you can, you know, extend contracts and do what you need to do, but as of right now, he’s got this year and then free agency and it’s over. Whereas Grayson Rodriguez, uh, I believe he’s still got at least three years of control. Now, a reason to do this if you’re Baltimore is that you’re just fed up with the injuries that Rodriguez has endured year after year after year. It’s been a lot of lat injuries, which obviously is a problem. Like they just continue to pop up. Um it what it reminds me of is uh the the Cardinals were in a similar spot not that long ago with Alex Reyes. If you remember, Alex Reyes, one of the highly touted right-handed pitchers in all of baseball. MLB pipeline had him as the number one right-handed prospect in baseball at one point. and he blew through the minors, was just racking up the case and looked like he was going to be a future star. And as soon as they brought him up to the major leagues, he got hurt and then he got hurt and then he got hurt again and then he got hurt again. It’s it was awful. All the talent in the world. Sky was the limit, but he couldn’t stay healthy. He had the one all-star appearance, which ironically came as a reliever in 2021 because they couldn’t trust him to make starts anymore. was fantastic and gave up the home run to Chris Taylor. Injuries got him again. Has not pitched in the major league since 2021. Dodgers picked him up after the Cardinals let let him cut cut him loose and he’s never been able to stay healthy. So, just a shame and I wonder if the O’s feel that that’s the path that Grayson Rodriguez is on and they’re just done with it. They don’t want to wait around for it anymore and that was it. So my thought on this is that Ward is a known commodity. Rodriguez is is not really, but if he reaches his potential, it could be a hell of a steal for the Angels if he can figure out how to stay on the field. And I think that this is the type of move that the Cardinals and I’m hoping I should say that the Cardinals can swing whenever they do trade away Nolan Aronado or perhaps somebody like a large NPAR. Those are guys whose values aren’t great right now. They’re they’re not worth as much as Taylor Ward is. You know, the guy I keep, but if you’re going to trade somebody and you want to like go get like a lottery ticketish type of guy, the guy I keep coming back to for a deal like this is Bobby Miller from the Dodgers. Former top prospect who has not panned out. He just hasn’t. Things have not worked out for Bobby Miller in LA. The team has appeared to move on from him in their their plans for the future. They made him a reliever in the minor leagues. Why not see if the Cardinals can do something with him? You’d have to have something the Dodgers want to go get him, which is why I suggested his name as part of the Brendan Donovan deal if they were to decide to trade him to the Dodgers. He wouldn’t be the main piece that I’m trying to get, but part of the package that I would want to come back, but that’s the kind of a deal I I certainly hope the Cardinals can get with Nolan Aronado at some point. Shed his payroll. You’re going to have to eat some money. Just is what it is. Get a couple of guys that maybe haven’t reached the levels their team wanted them to be at at this point, but still have some ceiling and see if you can strike gold with them. The issue is the the handcuff of the no trade clause. Only so many teams that Natto will go to, which which limits your options. But I if Ward can get you something like Rodriguez, perhaps Natto or N can score you something similar, maybe not quite as the ceiling that Grayson Rodriguez has or had at one point, but something like that like you know an Alex Manoa who’s now in the Braves organization. remember him in Toronto went to the All-Star game, was this upand cominging superstar, got hurt, and there was some like mental issues with not feeling ready to to pitch. Um, designated for assignment, the Braves got him, but he’s still a young man. That a reclamation project like that, that’s that, you know, this is where the upgrades and scouting come into play. Try and find a diamond in the rough, so to speak. Perhaps a former diamond like Monoa who just needs some repolishing is all. There are a lot of guys out there that haven’t lived up to what people thought they were going to. Cardinal, you know, Cardinals can take a chance on some people like this, whether it’s pitching, maybe it’s other positions as well. You know, don’t be shy about it. Uh see what you can get. See who’s got upside out there. Again, this is where all of this money that you put into the scouting and everything, this is where it comes into play. And uh hopefully it works out. Happy huntingheim. Thank you for making lock on Cardinals your first listen every day. If you haven’t already, give us a follow on X at l_cardinals and at JD Sports Radio, Tik Tok and Instagram at lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We’ll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.

St. Louis Cardinals solidify their future by protecting top prospects ahead of the Rule 5 Draft. Leonardo Bernal (MLB Pipeline Top 100 catcher), Joshua Baez (power-speed outfielder), Cooper Hjerpe, and Brycen Mautz (promising left-handed pitchers) earn coveted spots on the 40-man roster. Can this new wave of talent ignite a turnaround and set Cardinals fans abuzz?

00:00 Rule 5 Draft Process Explained

04:22 Leonardo Bernal: Rising Catcher Star

08:09 Joshua Baez Breakout & Outfield Depth

11:27 Hjerpe’s Recovery and MLB Aspirations

15:51 Pitcher Profile: Versatile Arsenal

18:05 Cardinals’ Unprotected Players Spotlight

20:37 Angels Trade Ward for Rodriguez

24:19 Cardinals Trade Arenado Speculation

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