Cardinals make room for Everson Pereira by jettisoning seldom-used slugger

When the St. Louis Cardinals brought Nelson Velazquez into the fold this offseason, they hoped he could provide some utility to their Major League roster as a powerful right-handed bat. He did that at times, but now the Cardinals are booting him off the big-league roster to make space for an intriguing waiver claim in Everson Pereira.

Velazquez was mostly used as a platoon bat against left-handed pitching, seeing some time in both corner outfield spots as well as designated hitter for St. Louis, and posted a solid .758 OPS against southpaws on the season with a .473 slugging percentage against them. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of his value, as he was well below-average against right-handed pitching and was a big minus in the outfield.

Velazquez was a hot name during spring training after he mashed his way through Jupiter but did not make the big league roster. When Velazquez did debut with the club in May, he had one of the most fun moments of the 2026 campaign, mashing a three-run bomb off of Cubs starter Shota Imanaga to tie the game in his first at-bat with the club.

Velazquez will either be granted immediate release or designated for assignment, and this paves the way for Pereira to make his Cardinals debut.

Everson Pereira holds higher upside for the Cardinals than Nelson Velazquez

While Velazquez's production against left-handed pitching was helpful, he did not provide enough value to hold tightly to if an opportunity like this presented itself, and the Cardinals pounced at the chance to add a guy like Pereria to their roster.

Pereira is a former top 100 prospect who has a ton of power in his own game, but even at just age 25, he's been passing from team to team because of his major swing-and-miss issues. If Pereira doesn't get a handle on the number of times he chases outside of the strike zone and just swings and misses in general, he'll never fully realize that power potential. But the Cardinals have a chance here to see what he can do with the playing time they have available.

Pereira has the ability to play center field but likely lands better as a corner outfielder, and during his time in the minors, he has put up some insane power numbers across various sample sizes. Considering the Cardinals don't have a clear center fielder for the future right now, Pereira has a chance to fight for that role or even just a chance as a fourth outfielder with the club.

He very well could end up being less effective than Velazquez was and be let go by the Cardinals eventually as well, but in a similar sample size this year, Pereira has put up a better OPS vs. lefties (.790) and has held his own a bit better against righties.

Given where the Cardinals are in their rebuild, this is the right kind of flyer to take, just like signing Velazquez this offseason made a lot of sense. Most of these types of moves don't turn into anything, but when they hit, they can be very helpful pieces to the future of a club. Velazquez appears to be on his way out, but perhaps Pereira can carve out a bigger role long-term.

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