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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.
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.
Juan Yepez
The Cardinals are almost spoiled with depth in regards to their infield. Arenado will finish his career in STL, Winn will be the SS for years to come, Gorman and Donovan will handle 2B, and Walker or Baker will take 1B after Goldy retires. So where can Juan Yepez play? He has shown that he is terrible in the outfield. So that leaves him the corner infield or DH. With flashes of clutch hitting, he can be useful in the lineup.
His issue is being able to provide any value outside of his bat. And with his 2023 performance in AAA and in STL, he is not providing much of anything. If Yepez can have a hot September, he might be back next year. Or that can be trade bait going into the off-season. Either way, the FO will want to see Yepez facing major league arms to get a final evaluation of what they have with Yepez.
Guillermo Zuniga
The flame thrower from the WBC back in March. Who can forget that performance? This guy rode the exhilarating moments of the global tournament and got Cardinals fans excited at the same time. This looked like a sneaky pickup from the FO to use in the later stages of games to add more ammo with Gallegos, Caberea, and Helsley. Well, that did not go according to plan. Zuniga has not been given very many opportunities in STL this season.
He has only pitched 2 innings where he allowed 2 hits and 1 ER. The call-ups to STL were very brief and unforgettable. Where this gets upsetting is his performance in AAA. He has pitched 28.2 IP with an alarming ERA of 7.85 and a WHIP of 1.779. His strikeouts are high at 11.3 SO/9, but his walks are also high at 6.3 BB/9. That looks like demotion or DFA potential. But with September almost here and a new revamp to the entire pitching staff next year, the FO has to find out if Zuniga will be a part of that plan or not.
James Naile
Naile has had a weird season in 2023. He frequently gets called up, but it feels like he is getting fired every time he is demoted to AAA. His AAA performance has been solid, displaying a 2.70 ERA, 9.8 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9, and a 1.157 WHIP in 46.2 IP. Not bad for a Memphis Mafia guy. But his performance in the majors has not been so nice. He has a 9.64 ERA, 4.5 SO/9, 5.8 BB/9 and 2.500 WHIP in 14.0 IP. The sample size is much smaller, but that is enough work to show that he cannot figure out how to pitch at the next level.
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His role on the team is simply to fill innings when needed at a low cost. But Naile is 30 years old with not much to show past AAA. If the Cardinals are fine paying a guy not developing any further to stay in AAA and take up a roster spot…then that's fine. But September is where they need to feed him innings to see if he can progress just a little bit to show his value to this roster going forward.
Many other players can be observed with this last month ahead of us. The 2024 roster will look much different than the current roster, and it all starts with this final stretch of the season. Who do you think will be playing consistently going forward? Tweet your thoughts at @FSRedBirdRants and let us know!