5 players to receive considerable playing time in September

September call-ups are just ahead, and the St. Louis Cardinals have several players being given the stage to prove themselves.

New York Mets v St. Louis Cardinals
New York Mets v St. Louis Cardinals | Joe Puetz/GettyImages
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The dog days of summer are almost over. Everyone is thankful given the record heat waves across the country. But as we go into September, the roster size will expand to 28 and teams can use more players from their 40-man roster to their advantage for the playoff push. The St. Louis Cardinals will be utilizing theirs differently. The remaining schedule will be a tryout for the 2024 40-man roster with many guys on the brink of being traded or released come the off-season. Here are 5 guys who will play a significant amount of innings in September.

Masyn Winn

The Masyn Winn hype is here. After many years of milking the Paul Dejong contract, the Cardinals can finally turn the page and start fresh. The future is here and he is electric. Winn’s current MLB stint is not lighting up the box score or highlight reel, but he is having quality ABs. He will need more reps to get a feel for MLB pitching and you can expect him to start almost every game moving forward. In 498 PA in Memphis this season, Winn had a slash line of .288/.359/.474/ (.834 OPS) with 15 2Bs, 7 3Bs. 18 HRs, and 61 RBIs.

Luken Baker

Paul Goldschmidt is not getting any younger. He is already showing signs of his age catching up to him and the Cardinals do not have much depth in the farm for first basemen. Jordan Walker could eventually be moved over to first base to balance the other position depth. So it is crunch time for Luken Baker. He is an absolute force in AAA, where he was hitting .334/.439/.720 (1.159 OPS) with 22 2bs, 33 HRs, and 98 RBIs in 314 ABs. That is INSANE. This should translate easily to the bigs correct? Well in 35 big league ABs, he is batting .200/.222/.200 (.422 OPS) with 7 total hits, none being HR. So if Baker wants to be the succession plan for post-Goldy……September is your stage.

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