Thomas Saggese needs to be on the St. Louis Cardinals' roster now

This week has left no shortage of roster conundrums for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals promoted Jordan Walker on August 12th, only to platoon him against left-handed pitchers and send him back down to Memphis after playing in four games. Other corresponding moves were giving Brandon Crawford his release and promoting Luken Baker, a long overdue move for the veteran minor-leaguer. Yesterday, the Cardinals demoted Nolan Gorman to Memphis and promoted utilityman José Fermín.

Gorman recently surpassed 150 strikeouts this season and accomplished this in fewer games than in 2023. He's a slugger lost at the plate.

Today, I want to talk about infielder Thomas Saggese, the fourth-ranked prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals system. Saggese has batted .277/.336/.545 since July 23rd with the Memphis Redbirds. This week, Saggese has homered in four of the last six games. This led me to a roster question.

Gorman has appeared lost at the plate for the better part of the second half of the season. Brandon Crawford was not going to be on this team until next year. Why not promote Saggese to the 40-man roster on Sunday, demote Gorman to get his swing back in Memphis, and release Brandon Crawford then?

According to John Denton, the Cardinals stated that the team wants Saggese to play every day, which is fair. But is José Fermín, who has an OPS+ of 49 after 52 games in two seasons, at this point, a better option moving forward than Sagesse? Let's also point out that, as Brandon Kiley hammered out on 101 ESPN on Wednesday, there is no backup shortstop behind Masyn Winn. Saggese can play both second base and shortstop to fill that void.

In an all-but-lost season for the St. Louis Cardinals, players such as Jordan Walker and Luken Baker received almost zero opportunities to contribute. Thomas Saggese is another one of those players and can help you right now. Instead, he remains in Memphis while Jose Fermin stays on a mismanaged 26-man roster.