These lefty options could solve a remaining bullpen question for the Cardinals

Full squad workouts have officially started for the St. Louis Cardinals and the excitement towards the regular season is building. Between seeing guys in the "best shape of his life" and overreacting to everything we see after craving baseball all winter, there are legitimate competitions happening in Jupiter.

The Cardinals have two rehabbing lefties who could fill an immediate role in the big league bullpen

One such competition that will likely extend into the regular season and potentially not even have a long-term answer is the lefty reliever corps. While team bullpens are known for being full of cheap, replaceable youngsters or veterans looking to extend their careers, the Cardinals' relievers fall in the middle of that range. This interesting collection of arms in St. Louis could be directly related to why Chaim Bloom felt the need to hang on to late-inning lefty JoJo Romero, rather than flip him to a contender for minor league depth.

Currently, Romero is joined on the 40-man roster by southpaws Justin Bruihl and Nick Raquet as players with major league experience, and are followed up by non-roster invitees Jared Shuster, Packy Naughton, and Zack Thompson. The latter two names have been with the Cardinals' organization since 2022 but have each gone through massive injury issues before having the opportunity to establish themselves as capable major league pitchers.

Naughton, 29, had his most MLB experience in 2023 for St. Louis and he put up a solid season out of the bullpen. In 26 games, he struck out close to a batter per inning while only walking seven hitters over 32 innings. The overall numbers were mediocre, with a 4.78 ERA that was inflated due to allowing plenty of hits, but Naughton's 3.14 FIP shows that he was a better pitcher than what we saw on the mound. Unfortunately, his season would end in early April thanks to surgery to repair his flexor tendon. Those injuries did not stop there as he underwent Tommy John surgery the following season, causing him to miss most of 2024 and all of 2025. Now, Packy is back on the mound and throwing with full intention, giving him an opportunity to make the big league roster that is full of openings behind Romero.

Joining the competition is another old friend in Thompson, who has had plenty of expectations since being drafted in the first round of the 2019 draft. Fans have gotten glimpses of Thompson for 52 games over a three-year stretch, with each season being cut short due to some sort of injury. That trend continued as he missed the entire 2025 season with another arm issue, but he returned to the organization after being ineligible for minor league free agency due to being on the major league injured list all season. Thompson has been bounced around between starting and relieving so far in his professional career, but most of his time in the minors has been spent as a starter. Now 28 years old, the Cardinals may be more inclined to shorten Thompson's workload after multiple years of injuries and try to squeeze whatever they can out of him. The best way to do so would be if he pitches well enough and stays healthy through spring, to turn that into a 26-man roster spot. Thompson still has a minor league option remaining, so he may have a little more flexibility than some of the other names he is competing with for an Opening Day job.

The Cardinals would obviously love if all southpaws on the roster exploded while in Jupiter. If that were to be the case, it is possible the team would rekindle trade conversations surrounding Romero, especially if injuries pop up around other organizations. If Romero is dealt to a contender, that leaves plenty of opportunities for innings for pretty much any pitcher with a healthy left arm.