10 players on Cardinals' 40-man roster who don't deserve a role in 2024

As things currently stand, the Cardinals have a lot of unnecessary players on their 40-man roster
St. Louis Cardinals v Philadelphia Phillies
St. Louis Cardinals v Philadelphia Phillies / Rich Schultz/GettyImages
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The random assortment of arms - Casey Lawrence, Jacob Barnes, Kyle Leahy, and Andrew Suarez

I'm not sure everyone was mentally prepared for the Cardinals' pitching staff to take an even bigger dip after the trade deadline, and I really don't understand why. When you trade away five of your top internal arms (Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Chris Stratton, and Genesis Cabrera) and do not acquire replacements, it's going to get even uglier.

While I wish the Cardinals would have been more aggressive in the waiver wire and take flyers on interesting arms, I get why guys like Casey Lawrence, Jacob Barnes, Kyle Leahy, and Andrew Suarez are eating innings at the Major League level. The Cardinals were not going to make a run during the second half, and since most of their prospects were not MLB-ready yet, it wasn't worth throwing them to the wolves knowing they'd likely fail. Let some of these arms you do not have a long-term future get the innings.

After this season though, I'm not sure any of those arms have a reason to be on the 40-man roster.

Sure, maybe one could remain as a "break glass in case of emergency" type of pitcher, but otherwise, the Cardinals are going to need those 40-man spots. They already need to add three starting pitchers, and likely multiple bullpen arms as well, so there's really no point in having them on the 40-man roster.