Springfield, Mo.
St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom finalized his first opening day roster in charge of the Redbirds with a series of announcements from Hammons Field on Monday afternoon, making at least one highly anticipated – but obvious – announcement while dropping in a surprise that will leave the Cardinals short of a clear power source on opening day.
Second baseman JJ Wetherholt, widely considered a top-five prospect in baseball and one of the most anticipated position players in the last two decades of Cardinals baseball, has made the team, Bloom confirmed. He is the only position player who will make the roster without needing to be added to the 40-man roster, as outfielder Nelson Velázquez will be assigned to Memphis despite slugging four homers and posting a team-best 1.116 OPS in spring action.
Outfielder Nathan Church also made the team, as did utility players José Fermín and Thomas Saggese.
“This allows us to keep everybody in the organization,” Bloom said of the final roster choices. “(If) Nelson keeps doing at Memphis what he did in spring training, I would think that he’ll be a part of this at some point.”
As far as Wetherholt goes, his inclusion in the group was seemingly a foregone conclusion from the moment the Cardinals consummated the trade which sent Brendan Donovan to Seattle. He was clearly marked as the first-string second baseman from the first official day of spring training, and despite a slight lag in on-field production toward the end of camp, only strengthened his case as spring wore on. Indeed, he’s also a leading candidate to hit leadoff on opening day, marking a symbolic beginning to a new era of baseball with whom the team hopes will be one of its most essential players.
“Just been trying to focus on the process and kind of let everything else take care of itself,” Wetherholt said. “I came in wanting to have the end goal of making the team, but wasn’t going to let that decision ruin (the camp) or anything like that. Just worked every day hoping that it would be good, but if it was a different decision, I would’ve been able to roll with it.”
It was, indeed, the “good” decision, and Wetherholt was able to step out of a meeting with the coaching staff on Monday morning in time to catch his mother, a teacher, as she was in a Starbucks drive through on her break.
“Typical her, as soon as the good news emotions were gone, it turned into stress of how do we get there, what’s this and this and this,” Wetherholt cracked. “I was like, mom, let’s just have a good moment.”
The moment was also good for Wetherholt’s seven teammates who made the opening day roster. In addition to him, the group includes Church, Fermín, Saggese, Yohel Pozo and pitchers Michael McGreevy, Matt Pushard and Matt Svanson. They start the year at home Thursday against Tampa Bay.
Where will the Cardinals get power?
It is a young group, and one without proven power. Lars Nootbaar starting the season on the injured list means that the career home run leader on the active roster is Nolan Gorman, with 74. He’s followed by Ramón Urías (50), Alec Burleson (48), Jordan Walker (27) and Masyn Winn (26).
“That decision has several layers to it,” manager Oli Marmol said of sending Velázquez to Memphis, echoing Bloom. “The way we’re breaking, although a tough decision, allows us to keep everybody. If he continues to do what he’s doing…he’ll force our hand, and that’s what good players do.”
Without Velázquez on the roster, some combination of Church, Fermín and Saggese will handle duties in left field. Despite Church hitting left-handed and the other two hitting right-handed, Marmol cautioned against describing the situation as a pure platoon. There will be some days, he explained, where Church will spell Walker in right field, likely against pitchers with ferocious breaking balls who have bedeviled Walker in the past.
Both Fermín and Saggese, despite a lack of experience handling the position defensively, have strong bat-to-ball skills, and for a team which will hope to be competitive through pressuring opponents and being active on the base paths, cutting down on strikeout rates will play an important role in establishing a consistent identity. Despite striking out just four times in 49 plate appearances in spring, Velázquez holds a career strikeout percentage approaching 29%, six percentage points worse than league average.
The Cardinals also do not anticipate facing a great deal of left-handed pitching in the season’s opening weeks, further putting a squeeze on his opportunities, especially with Ivan Herrera likely to soak up a large percentage of at bats as the designated hitter. That leaves St. Louis in the midst of the sort of power outage they have not seen on the active roster in decades, with the hopes that the things they do well will allow them to play a style which puts the right amount of pressure on opponents.
“If we’re going to build winning players, we do that through developing them the right way,” Bloom said. “It’s not just about what happens at first pitch. It’s about everything that they do going through their day so they learn how to win together.”
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Jeff Jones is a freelance sports writer and member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is a frequent contributor to the Belleville News-Democrat, mlb.com and other sports websites.