{"id":645119,"date":"2026-03-26T19:28:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645119\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T19:28:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:28:45","slug":"two-cardinals-players-who-need-solid-starts-to-retain-roster-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645119\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Cardinals Players Who Need Solid Starts to Retain Roster Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals will face off against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon to kick off the 2026 Major League Baseball season. <\/p>\n

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally going to be able to see this young roster in action in meaningful games. The Chaim Bloom era is officially here<\/a> and it’s going to be judged on how fast the club can get back into contention. First and foremost, the Cardinals aren’t entering the season with World Series expectations, to say the least. But that’s okay right now. The Cardinals had three tough seasons in a row, which is what led to the transition to Bloom and ultimately the roster overhaul throughout the offseason. This roster is extremely young<\/a>. Even the club’s veterans are fairly young, like Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas, who is just 31 years old. <\/p>\n

Even if the Cardinals don’t go out and win 90-plus games and make a deep playoff run, this season can be a success if a few of the core pieces take steps forward, like Masyn Winn, Alec Burles, Victor Scott II, Jordan Walker and Iv\u00e1n Herrera. Also, of course, the projection of JJ Wetherholt is going to be the biggest story of the season. <\/p>\n

Those are a few of the core pieces who will get opportunities all season. There are guys that may not stick around throughout the entire campaign in the majors. Here are two guys who need solid starts to the season to stick around in the majors.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn \u2014 Utility Man\"St.<\/p>\n

Sep 7, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA;St. Louis Cardinals second base Jose Fermin (15) at bat against the San Francisco Giants at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Vizer-Imagn Images | Tim Vizer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Ferm\u00edn made the club out of camp along with Thomas Saggese and Nathan Church as options to help fill in out in left field with Lars Nootbaar on the Injured List. Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a> was the hottest offensive player in Cardinals camp before surprisingly missing out on the Opening Day roster. If Vel\u00e1zquez thrives down in Triple-A and Ferm\u00edn doesn’t have a fast start in the majors, it’s going to be a question at some point whether a change should be made.<\/p>\n

Andre Pallante \u2014 Starting Pitcher\"St.<\/p>\n

Sep 23, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante (53) throws against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This one may be a bit of a bold take. Pallante struggled last season, but looked much better in Spring Training. While that is the case, the Cardinals have more young pitching than they did last year. Richard Fitts<\/a> is down in Triple-A on the outside looking in. Soon enough Hunter Dobbins will be in a similar boat. If guys struggle in the majors in 2026, don’t be shocked if Fitts or Dobbins, when healthy, get a look in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals will face off against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon to kick off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-645119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116297133538041541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}