St. Louis Cardinals call up top prospect for final few weeks of the season

According to Robert Murray of FanSided, the St. Louis Cardinals are calling up infielder Thomas Saggese. Saggese, 22, was acquired via trade at last year's trade deadline from the Texas Rangers in exchange for Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton. John King and Tekoah Roby were also sent to St. Louis as a part of the trade. This will be Saggese's major league debut.

The Cardinals have since announced that the corresponding move will be sending center fielder Victor Scott II back down to Memphis. Roster construction-wise, it is worth noting that second baseman Brendan Donovan has been dealing with a nagging foot injury lately. Thomas Saggese ascended to the #4 spot according to MLB Pipeline in the site's preseason rankings, and he stayed there at the mid-season rankings.

Saggese started off hot last year with the Cardinals' Double-A affiliate in Springfield en route to a Texas League MVP award. He slashed .331/.403/.662 in 33 games with the Springfield Cardinals, and his 10 home runs led him to have a 168 wRC+ in just over a month's worth of games. He received a late-season promotion to Triple-A Memphis at the end of the 2023 season, and his numbers weren't as strong there. He finished his time in Memphis last year with a .207/.270/.345 slash line.

Saggese got off to a slow start this year, but he's turned it around in the last month. He has a slash line of .262/.323/.524 over the last 28 days with six home runs and 14 runs batted in. On the year, he has a 92 wRC+ in Triple-A.

Defensively, the Cardinals have utilized Saggese primarily as a shortstop. He's logged 593.1 innings there. He has also seen 364.1 innings at second base and an additional 95 innings at third base. He's been best defensively at second base (.986 fielding percentage and only three errors). He has a .965 fielding percentage at shortstop, but he's also committed 10 errors there. His fielding percentage is the lowest at the hot corner with a rating of .933. Saggese will become a utility player in the majors for the rest of the year, but he will start most of the games at second base.

This move shouldn't go unnoticed; for a team that has rolled out veterans all year, to give one of their top prospects a cup of coffee to close the season is noteworthy. Hopefully, Saggese is given a fair shot in the infield. He won't surpass Masyn Winn or Nolan Arenado, but he should see ample time at second base for the rest of the year.