St. Louis Cardinals: Predicting the 26-man roster two months out

We are less than two months from the start of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2020 season. Spring training games haven’t started yet, but how could the 26-man roster look?

It’s almost that time of the year again. Spring training is right around the corner and a short month later, we all will have our biggest source of unhappiness lovingly available to stress over every night. That’s right, we are less than 60 days away from the start of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2020 season.

The offseason was one of the most boring offseasons in the past few years but it was filled with plenty of rumors which sadly haven’t paid off (yet). The smart ones among us expected an offseason like this, the bold thought it’d never happen, and the ones who love to ride the rollercoaster are crashing hard right now. Nolan Arenado may circle back into our dreams by mid-summer, but for now, it seems the trail has gone cold.

Some will say that John Mozeliak had a terrible offseason and bang the same old drum about how he’s the worst person in the world and he should’ve been gone a long time ago. Honestly, that’s a tired take and the situation is much more complex than just what Mo can control.

The man signing the checks (Bill DeWitt Jr.) set the payroll for 2020 at about the same as it was in 2019 and Mo was really creative in finding a way to shore up the rotation, clear some outfield depth, and replenish the top of the farm system. The boss gave Mo a playground to play in, and he rocked that playground.

As we look forward to spring training and beyond, a lot of roster decisions have to be made. However, from today’s look at the roster, who do I predict will be heading North from Jupiter when spring ends? This is not who I think should make the roster, but who I think the team will end up going with.

Starters

The starters on the infield are one of the easier groups to decide for the St. Louis Cardinals assuming there are no injuries.

Starting at third base, the Cardinals have made it clear that Matt Carpenter is going to get every opportunity to reclaim his spot at third. Paul DeJong should have no competitors at shortstop. Kolten Wong will look to build on his 2019 season at second base and Paul Goldschmidt will look to bounce back in his second season with his new club. Lastly, as always, Yadier Molina will be behind the plate.

Those guys are all pretty set and the odd name out is last year’s breakout player, Tommy Edman. While I would hope Edman gets to play at least four games a week, I wouldn’t see him as a starter on Opening Day in Cincinnati.

Bench infielders

This is where things begin to get interesting. There are a few locks here led by Edman and Matt Wieters. From there, I would expect that Yairo Munoz and Edmundo Sosa will battle for the other backup infield spot but there is a good argument that Sosa should beat out Munoz. Rangel Ravelo will likely get his shot to prove he belongs in the bigs out of spring training, but if he doesn’t pan out, I could see him being an early-season roster casualty.

With the five starters on the infield, then Sosa, Edman, Wieters, and Ravelo, these nine infielders will be a very productive group as there are a ton of bounce-back candidates all over the place.

Starters

This is not going to be a long section, but it is a section that has some question marks. To begin, the Cardinals are going to have Dexter Fowler in right field. There’s no way around that, as they weren’t able to find any takers after the team was reportedly shopping the outfielder who will be 34 on Opening Day.

Predictably, it will be Harrison Bader in center for similar reasons. The Cardinals have committed to Bader and assuming he has even a mediocre spring, he is a lock to be out there. When we get to left field, that’s where things get interesting.

My heart screams Dylan Carlson, but I just don’t think it’ll actually happen out of spring training. Why? One, he’s not on the 40-man roster. Two, the Cardinals have committed to seeing what they have in the outfield and left field is there spot to see that. For this reason, I believe that the final two position player spots will go to Lane Thomas and Tyler O’Neill.

Both players are 1A and 1B on the depth chart at left field and should split the time pretty evenly in the beginning part of the season. What left field or even the entire outfield looks like in July could be drastically different, but for now, the four guys you should see out there on Opening Day are Fowler, Bader, O’Neill, and Thomas.

There’s an argument to be made for Justin Williams to make the team over Ravelo, and this could be a coin flip. Williams is on the 40-man and broke out at AAA last year (.856 OPS with eight homers in 160 at-bats) with a good amount of power from the left side. A lefty power bat is something the Cardinals had on their shopping list this winter and it wouldn’t surprise me if Williams snagged a spot with a good spring.