Cardinals Opening Day Roster Prediction 3.0: How roster looks after multiple injuries

Opening Day Lineups

Versus Right-Handed Pitching

2B Brendan Donovan
1B Paul Goldschmidt
DH Nolan Gorman
3B Nolan Arenado
C Willson Contreras
RF Jordan Walker
LF Alec Burleson
CF Dylan Carlson
SS Masyn Winn

Bench: C Ivan Herrera, INF Matt Carpenter, SS Brandon Crawford, OF Michael Siani

Versus Left-Handed Pitching

CF Dylan Carlson
1B Paul Goldschmidt
RF Jordan Walker
3B Nolan Arenado
DH Willson Contreras
2B Nolan Gorman
C Ivan Herrera
LF Alec Burleson
SS Masyn Winn

Bench: UTL Brendan Donovan, INF Matt Carpenter, SS Brandon Crawford, OF Michael Siani

While it's frustrating to potentially have Nootbaar and Edman out of the lineup to begin the year, the Cardinals have built up strong position player depth that should help them weather the storm for the short time period.

While the defense takes a hit for sure, the offense shouldn't miss much of a beat. Nootbaar is expected to hit at the top or in the heart of the order against right-handed pitching, but he's been mostly average against lefties. Edman's bread and butter is hitting off left-handed pitching and was going to bat 8th in their lineup against righties. Is the lineup weaker? Yes. But not enough to be concerned.

The Cardinals should still put up a lot of runs, and they'll need to. The way they've constructed this team, they need the lineup to be at least a top-10 unit in baseball, but to truly contend they probably need to be a top-5 lineup. They have the pieces in place to do that (and they were a top-8 unit in baseball before the trade deadline last year), but they'll have to prove it on the field for that promise to matter.

Overall, as long as Gray, Nootbaar, and Edman are just out for a short time, the Cardinals should be okay. If their injuries linger longer, specifically Gray and Nootbaar, that's cause for much bigger concerns.