6 Cardinals who are taking advantage of their runway

The St. Louis Cardinals underwhelmed at the trade deadline and have been in a downward spiral over the past week. Even with wins against the Marlins, a five-game losing streak all but ended the Cardinals' playoff hopes. As they enter the series finale against Miami, the Cardinals sit five games out of the final Wild Card spot with 35 games to go. Doable, but not realistic.

Even though the playoffs appear to be off the table, the rest of the season should provide opportunities for young players to stake claim on a future roster spot or play their way out of the organization. While plenty of fans were hoping for a youth movement earlier in the season, it appears the Cardinals are more open to providing those at-bats and innings now.

A handful of Cardinals players have taken advantage of their August opportunities.

The position players

One benefit of this mostly clear conclusion for the season, besides the surprising update about the Cardinals' ability to receive a lottery pick, is that the team appears more willing to play their young guys (minus JJ Wetherholt) in these low-stress games. While Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, and Victor Scott II have been hurt, the Cardinals have finally seemed willing to make good on their runway promise and have been providing more consistent playing time for others on the roster.

Nolan Gorman is a polarizing case among Cardinals fans, as he showed extreme power potential over his first two seasons while working at second and third base. Unfortunately, the 2024 season was a major step back for Gorman, and he had failed to maintain any success since then. There have been positive stretches, but old habits and injuries have halted his continued progress. When Nolan Arenado was supposed to be traded, Gorman was expected to have a full-time role somewhere on the diamond, but that did not happen, and he has had to fight for at-bats while battling a couple of injuries. In August, though, the lefty slugger seems to have found a new, sustainable approach at the plate, even if the counting stats do not show it.

This month, Gorman has put up an .815 OPS despite a .234 batting average and massive struggles on the defensive side. However, Gorman has drawn walks in August at a higher rate than any other month while also striking out just 16 times in 15 games, his lowest total of the season in a month span. Against lefties this month, the 25-year-old has had 16 at-bats and is hitting .250 with two homers and two walks with just four strikeouts. In Gorman's best overall month of June, he still struggled against lefties, hitting .160 with eight strikeouts and two homers in 25 at-bats.

Utility infielder Thomas Saggese was seen as a candidate to make the team out of Spring Training, but ended up starting the year in Memphis. He has been up with the big league team three separate times this season, but he has not received as much playing time in his previous promotions as he has with this current one. With injuries to Arenado and Brendan Donovan, Saggese has gotten 50 at-bats in August, and, while the power and plate discipline is lacking, his bat-to-ball skills have been on display. Never known as someone to take a walk, Saggese has yet to take a free pass this month but is hitting at a .300 clip while knocking two doubles and scoring seven runs. He has filled in at second and third base, with most of his defensive innings coming at the keystone. Over the past two seasons between the majors and minors, Saggese has totaled 47 homers and 59 doubles, but this year, the infielder has only put up 21 extra-base hits in over 300 at-bats, good for a .340 slugging percentage. If he can draw a handful of walks this month and find a couple of gaps, Saggese could become a right-handed complement to Alec Burleson in the order.

Finally, perhaps the most surprising of the group is catcher Pedro Pages. While he has received plenty of playing time over the past two seasons, the Cardinals seem committed to Pages for the rest of this season, and he could be playing his way into the top of the catching depth chart for the 2026 season. The Cardinals have two catching prospects within the top 100, and their Triple-A starter, Jimmy Crooks, has been on honorable mention lists throughout the year. Pages was in a miserable stretch for the better part of a month, but August has brought out a completely different hitter. On the season, Pages is hitting .228, and that is actually a massive step up, thanks to his huge month. In 11 games, the current starting catcher is slashing a ridiculous .417/.488/.750 for a 1.238 OPS, boosted by three homers and three doubles, and a team-leading 11 RBIs this month. He has drawn walks and struck out at improved rates so far while also tightening up the run game behind the plate. If he stays on this path, it would be a surprise to see the Cardinals force Ivan Herrera back into the catching gear or become aggressive with their catcher prospects.

The pitchers

While those three fight for whatever scraps are left on offense, innings are available for the taking. After trading away their top three relievers and saying goodbye to Erick Fedde, the Cardinals needed to find roles for basically everyone in their relief corps and their fifth starter spot. JoJo Romero is the de facto veteran of the group at the ripe old age of 28 and with five seasons of MLB experience. Coming into the season, the bullpen was seen as an area of strength built around those three since-dealt arms and supplemental pieces like Kyle Leahy and Ryan Fernandez. Leahy has held his own in multiple roles this season, but Fernandez has failed to capitalize on last season's success and has struggled mightily this year.

The most impressive of the group has been a familiar member of the Memphis shuttle in Matt Svanson. Originally acquired at the 2023 trade deadline for Paul DeJong, Svanson had to wait until this year to make his MLB debut after putting up phenomenal numbers as the main closer for Double-A Springfield last season. Now on his fifth promotion to the big league club, Svanson has become a go-to guy for manager Oli Marmol's bullpen. In 12.2 August innings, Svanson has yet to give up a run while striking out 17 batters. He is also limiting traffic on the bases, having only allowed six hits and two walks in seven outings, with five of those appearances lasting multiple innings. Of all relievers who have thrown at least 10 innings this month, Svanson is the only one not to give up a run, and his 12.08 K/9 is 8th-best out of 165 pitchers.

Not to be overshadowed, Riley O'Brien has stepped up to take on some high-leverage innings. One of my preseason breakout candidates, O'Brien has paired with Romero and Leahy to form a quality back end of the bullpen. In seven games that total 7.2 innings, the hard-throwing righty has a win and two saves, allowing just one run over that span. Matchup depending, O'Brien looks to be a main closer option for Marmol when Romero is unavailable or had thrown earlier in the game. His command has been a concern for his career so far, and he has walked four batters this month, but has limited the damage thanks to a .154 opponent batting average and no homers allowed. While his strikeouts are way down this month, O'Brien has put up double-digit K/9 at multiple points in his career and should be able to tap back into his putaway stuff.

Finally, the one that fans have been waiting for since the beginning of the year, Michael McGreevy. While we are coming to the realization that McGreevy is another pitch-to-contact arm at this point in his career, he has been a welcome addition to the rotation since the team moved on from Fedde. In August, the rookie has thrown six innings in each of his four starts and is 3-0 with a 3.75 ERA. He has been effective and efficient in his starts, not topping 90 pitches in any of them while walking a grand total of two batters in 24 innings. To maintain his effectiveness, McGreevy will have to establish a wipeout pitch to go along with his pinpoint command, and that pitch appears to be his sweeper. While the strikeout results are not there just yet, he has limited the power against his sweeper, with just a .295 slugging percentage against him.

While the playoffs are not completely out of the realm of possibility for the St. Louis Cardinals, the most likely scenario is a third straight year missing the postseason. A measure of success for the next 30-plus games of the year will be seeing how their young players and prospects take advantage of the opportunities they are given as they fight for a roster spot on next year's Cardinals team.