Cardinals’ Opening Day roster all but official. Here’s a first look at who heads north

The St. Louis Cardinals took procedural steps ahead of this week’s rare exhibition games in Arizona against the Chicago Cubs which have all but set their Opening Day roster, resolving one of camp’s most interesting position battles in a prudent – if not maximally exciting – fashion.

Top prospect Victor Scott II was assigned to minor league camp along with a flurry of other moves, opening a path in center field for Dylan Carlson to begin the season.

Left field will be occupied by a combination of Alec Burleson and Brendan Donovan on the opening road trip to Los Angeles and San Diego, and Michael Siani made the team as the fourth outfielder and primary backup in center.

Saturday’s roster moves reduced the number of players still technically in Cardinals camp, even though the camp itself has broken into a traveling road show, to 35.

Five players are set to open the season on the injured list: pitchers Sonny Gray (hamstring), Keynan Middleton (forearm) and Drew Rom (biceps) and outfielders Tommy Edman (wrist) and Lars Nootbaar (ribs).

That leaves four players remaining to cut.

One of those will be third catcher Pedro Pagés, sure to be assigned to Memphis after a strong first spring on the 40-player roster. Infielder Thomas Saggese, acquired in last summer’s Jordan Montgomery trade, put together an outstanding camp of his own, earning the right to be the last rostered player on a non-roster invite with his .304 batting average and 11 runs batted in.

Saggese and José Fermín will find their ways to Memphis so long as Brandon Crawford’s sore wrist continues to check out, and manager Oliver Marmol told reporters in Florida over the weekend that he expects Crawford to be ready for opening day.

The final cut will, by rule, come from the pitching staff. Two major pieces fell into place with the announcements that lefty Matthew Liberatore and righty Riley O’Brien had officially earned their spots, marking the first opening day roster for each.

For O’Brien, his success is at least in part a vindication of the club’s offseason strategy of simply collecting as many arms as possible with quality measurables in their arsenal. O’Brien struck out seven and, crucially, walked only two while allowing just one earned run in nine spring innings.

For Liberatore, the move to the bullpen isn’t yet a door being bolted shut on his career as a starter, but it is at least the door being pushed closed. After Zack Thompson won a temporary rotation spot while Gray recuperates, keeping Liberatore on a starter’s schedule would’ve necessitated a trip to the minors.

Instead, being placed in the bullpen – and as a reliever with use, not one behind glass – signals that the club is interested in pursuing the trends which leapt off the page down the stretch last season. Liberatore was better as a reliever in 2023 to the tune of nearly 300 points of OPS, and will have every opportunity to demonstrate that his future lies beyond the outfield gate.

Winter trade acquisition Nick Robertson was among those sent to Memphis, leaving three pitchers for whom two spots are available. One will go to Andre Pallante, who has the second-most appearances of any Cardinals reliever over the last two seasons and who debuted a sharp new curveball this spring which should help mitigate his struggles against right-handed hitters.

The other is down to lefty John King and righty Ryan Fernandez. King did not pitch over the weekend and did not travel with the team to Arizona while fighting off what was described as a stomach virus. He also can be freely optioned to the minors, whereas Fernandez, as a Rule 5 draft pick this winter, must be kept on the active roster or the injured list for the full season to remain in the organization.

It’s possible that the delay in announcing the final spot is simply a matter of determining whether King’s illness is significant enough to require his own injured list placement, especially since he won’t be able to contribute as an extra arm in this week’s matchups with the Cubs.

Liberatore making the team in addition to JoJo Romero gives St. Louis two lefty relievers, and for all Pallante’s improvement against righties, he remains an outstanding neutralizer of lefty hitters.

Had Scott cracked the opening day roster, that decision would have represented the only real shock of spring. Instead, in the process of adjusting to injuries, the Cardinals have created a group that checks the expected boxes with minimal fuss. Finishing play in Florida with one more loss than wins and five ties, it’s hard to draw much from the results of exhibition play that wasn’t already known when the spring started.

Now, with just half a week before the games count for real, the opportunity to emphatically turn the page on a lost season is well within their grasp. Whether it’s within their ability is, by and large, what the last six weeks of sharpening and winnowing have been all about.