The St. Louis Cardinals are next on our Players Likely to Debut series. In case you missed it, we have already rolled out the AL and NL East along with the AL Central.
AL East: Red Sox — Yankees — Orioles — Blue Jays — Rays
NL East: Marlins — Braves — Phillies — Mets—Nationals
AL Central: Tigers — Royals — White Sox—Twins—Cleveland
Below, you will find a list of three prospects from the respective organization. Each prospect will have a number score next to their name — this number will represent the estimated amount of time we anticipate that player seeing at the big-league level. Players that have already made their big-league debut will not be included on this list.
BREAKDOWN OF TIME ON ROSTER SCORES:
1 — September call-ups / guys that are likely to see less than 20-25 games on the roster
2 — 1/4 of the season (roughly 40 games on roster)
3 — 1/2 of the season (roughly 80 games on roster)
4 — 3/4 of the season (roughly 120 games on roster)
5 — Full season on the MLB roster
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Position — Name (Time on Roster Score)
3B — Nolan Gorman (1)
The 3B spot for Gorman to potentially claim at some point this season quickly closed up after the Cardinal’s big acquisition of a different Nolan just a few weeks ago. The arrival of Nolan Arenado will obviously impact the trajectory of Gorman’s next few seasons, but the left handed swing has shown that the slugger is going to be a force in the major leagues at some point. Expect Gorman to take the better part of this year to continue to iron out some of the swing and miss tendencies, but don’t be too surprised if he gets a cup of coffee in September.
LHP — Zack Thompson (1)
One of the bigger names coming into the ‘19 Draft out of Kentucky was Zack Thompson. He wrestled with some injuries that ultimately led to his stock falling a bit and primarily being used in the pen during his first taste of professional ball. However, with that in the rear-view, the Cards should be looking to push him fairly quickly as is common with established college arms.
C — Ivan Herrera (3)
Looking at the depth chart right now, it would appear likely that Herrera plays almost the entire season at the MLB level, but there’s a pretty significant name still on the market by the name of Yadier Molina. It seems as a return to the Red Birds is almost inevitable for the longtime Cardinal’s backstop so Herrera will likely end up sliding down a spot on depth chart. Nonetheless, Andrew Knizner nor recently acquired Tyler Heineman are overly successful backstops so a spot for Herrera could potentially open up rather quickly.
NOTABLE
A couple of names to consider that could see some at bats are Luken Baker and Juan Yepez. Both stem from the same tree: Corner-only RHH power bats. Otherwise, Angel Rondon, Connor Jones, and Griffin Roberts are a few arms who could see a handful of innings in the Cards’ pen at some point.