St. Louis Cardinals News: Ivan Herrera, Angel Rendon added to 40-man

The deadline to set 40-man rosters before the Rule 5 draft is November 20. Before that deadline, the St. Louis Cardinals have added two young players.

Every year, the Rule 5 Draft offers teams a slightly unique way to add talent to their team. The rules surrounding the draft are that any player who has been in the minor leagues for at least three seasons but isn’t yet on their team’s 40-man roster is eligible to be drafted. The problem is, the player drafted must stay on the MLB roster all season or be returned. This method of player acquisition has helped the St. Louis Cardinals multiple times in recent years.

The most glaring success for the Cardinals was Matt Bowman, but the deadline for the Cardinals to add players to the 40-man is Friday the 20th. Redbird Rants contributor Ben Remis did a full write up on the Rule 5 situation concerning the Cardinals last week.

The biggest choice to make for the Cardinals is about who to protect, and who to risk losing.

St. Louis Cardinals face tough decisions as Rule 5 Draft approaches

The deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft is November 20th. Which talented young players do the St. Louis Cardinals need to make room for?

Over the past two days, the Cardinals made the two decisions that seemed the most obvious. Census top-150 prospect in baseball Ivan Herrera was added to the 40-man on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Angel Rondon got his call.

As is shown, the Cardinals’ 40-man roster is relatively full at the moment with only one open spot left. The 39 counts Dakota Hudson who will be placed on the 60-man IL when the season starts, so it is really at 38, but it isn’t looking great for the Cardinals to bring back all three of Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, and Kolten Wong.

The deadline is the end of the day on Friday and reasonable cases could be made for a couple of the other six Rule 5 eligible players. They may not be done with roster moves.

Herrera, 20, is viewed as one of the quick risers in the Cardinals’ system and could arrive in St. Louis as soon as 2022. Rondon, another promising arm, figures to make an impact in St. Louis as soon as 2021. In his last full season, he threw at High-A and AA with a 3.15 ERA over 160 innings. Rondon is about to turn 23 and may end up in the bullpen longterm but is nonetheless an exciting arm the team wants to keep in the system.

I wouldn’t bet that the Cardinals choose to protect anyone else, but without any clear candidates for getting cut from the 40-man, it will be interesting to see how the team manipulates the roster should they want to add more than one or two players this winter.