St. Louis Cardinals: Opening Day Roster Finalized

Heading into the final week of Spring Training, the St. Louis Cardinals appear to have projected their 25-man roster for Opening Day. This will become official in the days leading up to April 2.

The St. Louis Cardinals are just a week away from beginning the 2017 regular season. That means it’s time to make final roster cuts and dive into the new schedule with only 25 guys on the major-league roster.

Spring Training has afforded Cardinals fans the opportunity to get a look at some young, exciting prospects who will begin the year at various minor-league levels. But now that Spring Training nears a close, the major-league club will focus on the core of players it will lean on to begin the season.

Slowly but surely, the 25-man roster has taken shape, especially over the past week. On Friday, manager Mike Matheny announced that catcher Eric Fryer, infielder Greg Garcia, and first baseman/outfielder Jose Martinez will all begin the year on the Opening Day roster (link to article below).

On Saturday after the Cardinals’ Grapefruit League game against the Miami Marlins, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reported that Matheny confirmed that relievers Matt Bowman and Miguel Socolovich will also begin the year in St. Louis:

This all but puts a stamp on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster, barring any injuries.

Speaking of the injury bug, during Saturday’s game, pitchers Lance Lynn and John Gant, and third baseman Jhonny Peralta, all left the game for precautionary reasons. Lynn and Peralta are locks for the 25-man roster, and neither’s availability for Opening Day is expected to be jeopardized because of any lingering effects.

Langosch provided updates on the status of each of the injured Cardinals after the game as well:

Gant projects to begin the year in the triple-A Memphis rotation. It’s unclear if this will delay the start of his season, but General Manager John Mozeliak said at this point he isn’t concerned that it will.

With the confirmation that Bowman and Socolovich will begin the year in the St. Louis bullpen, the Cardinals’ major-league roster will look like this on April 2:

Starting Rotation

RHP Carlos Martinez, RHP Adam Wainwright, RHP Michael Wacha, RHP Lance Lynn, RHP Mike Leake

Bullpen

RHP Seung-Hwan Oh, LHP Kevin Siegrist, LHP Brett Cecil, RHP Jonathan Broxton, RHP Matt Bowman, RHP Miguel Socolovich, RHP Trevor Rosenthal

Starting Lineup

C Yadier Molina, 1B Matt Carpenter, 2B Kolten Wong, 3B Jhonny Peralta, SS Aledmys Diaz, LF Randal Grichuk, CF Dexter Fowler, RF Stephen Piscotty

Bench

C Eric Fryer, 1B Matt Adams, IF Greg Garcia, IF Jedd Gyorko, 1B/OF Jose Martinez

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Beyond the first two games of the season, the order of the rotation has yet to be announced, but the final five exhibition games on the Cardinals’ schedule will be started by, in this order:

Martinez, Wainwright, Wacha, Lynn, Leake

The team has off days on Saturday April 1, Monday April 3, and Thursday April 6, so Matheny can rearrange the order of his pitchers if he pleases without making any of them pitch on too short of rest.

In recent days, Matheny has also entertained the idea of platooning Wong at second base to begin the year, which would mean more starts for Gyorko and Garcia.

Next: Announcing the Right Roster Positions

If the Cardinals get good returns on Lynn and Peralta in the next few days, this will be the roster they head north with after their exhibition games with the Springfield Cardinals and Memphis Redbirds. Opening Day is right around the corner!