The Cardinals have had one of the more interesting off seasons in recent memory. Chaim Bloom did his best to keep the fanbase engaged by completing one big transaction each month starting with Sonny Gray in November and culminating with the Brendan Donovan trade in February. Despite Bloom’s best efforts to keep us entertained, there is only so much enjoyment one can derive from offseason trade rumors and updated prospect rankings. With pitchers and catchers reporting and spring training games now
only a week away, we will soon have real results and on-field performances to dissect and overanalyze. The biggest spotlight this spring is going to be on top prospect JJ Wetherholt, but there are going to be plenty of other stories and developments to follow. Here are nine stories I will be following far too closely and reading way too much into during spring training.
1. Joshua Baez Playing Time
I could make the argument that Baez is one of the most important players in the organization both in the near and long term. The Cardinals outfield has been a complete mess in recent years. Since ranking third in baseball in outfielder WAR during the 2021 season, the Cardinals have ranked 8th, 20th, 26th, and 26th. Over the last two seasons combined, they have ranked dead last in baseball in home runs from their outfield. Enter Joshua Baez, who boasts some of the best exit velocity and advanced hitting metrics in the minor leagues. Baez’s playing time in spring training will give us a clue as to how the Cardinals view the timeline of a major league debut. Will he be given a handful of at-bats throughout the spring or given something closer to a full workload of 40 to 60 plate appearances? Performance will, of course, be a key factor in how much of the Grapefruit League spotlight Baez earns, but we could get some hint about his timeline based on the opportunities he is given. After the Victor Scott and Jordan Walker rushed debuts, many fans are leery of pushing prospects too quickly, but I have confidence that the front office will not do anything to compromise Baez’s development.
2. Increased Velocity
Every spring reports come trickling out of camp that some pitcher has added three or four miles per hour to his fastball. It may be a selective memory on my part, but these reports seem to have more signal than many of the offseason adjustment stories you hear. Before his breakout in 2024, Quinn Mathews came to spring training pitching in the mid-90s after living in the low-90s at Stanford. Last year, Brycen Mautz and Cooper Hjerpe came to camp with fastballs that had ticked up in velocity. While Hjerpe ended up missing the season with Tommy John surgery, Mautz parlayed his improved velo to an excellent Double-A season and the Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the Year award. The Cardinals seem to think that Red Sox acquisition Blake Aita has room to add velocity. Perhaps former bonus babies Branelli Franco or Reinier Lopez will come stateside and start lighting up radar guns in Florida. From the 2025 draft class, Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin got most of the attention, but Cade Crossland and Ethan Young got big bonuses as well and are gearing up for their first professional seasons. The Cardinals are playing a numbers game when it comes to pitching development, and with the stockpile of promising arms in the system, we are sure to have a few big velocity gainers emerge this spring.
3. Infielders in the Outfield
Chaim Bloom is still indicating that the Cardinals are looking to add an outfield bat, but how serious of a look will Thomas Saggese and Jose Fermin get in the outfield this spring? Assuming Wetherholt makes the opening day roster, playing time on the infield could be a bit tight. Both players could give themselves a huge advantage in finding their way into the lineup if they can improve their versatility. For the Cardinals, finding a right-handed hitting outfielder internally to stopgap any potential poor performance from Walker or a slow recovery from Nootbaar could do wonders in raising the floor of the team. Saggese has not played any outfield in his professional career, and Fermin only has a handful of games under his belt, but both players are athletic enough that it is easy to imagine them handling the transition without too much issue. Saggese in particular is well positioned with 78th-percentile sprint speed.
4. Aggressive Minor League Promotions
Which minor leaguers will be promoted more aggressively than anticipated? Last season, the first hint that Ixan Henderson was an up-arrow guy was when he broke camp with the Double-A club after only six starts at the High-A level. While Bloom has the reputation for being relatively conservative with minor league promotions, there are still going to be some players to receive an aggressive assignment, which will be a great window into how the Cardinals view their progress to date. The reporting from minor league spring training is much more difficult to come by than on the big league side, but there should still be plenty of information coming in around the action on the backfields.
5. Starting Pitching
The Cardinals have a clearly defined top seven starters with Liberatore, May, Leahy, Pallante, McGreevy, Dobbins, and Fitts. The battle for the starting rotation will be interesting enough, but how will the Cardinals deploy the depth that does not make the rotation? We are likely to see some version of a six-man rotation in the early going to reduce workloads. The Cardinals could also use one of the seven in the swingman/spot starter position that Steven Matz occupied last season. If they elect to send one of the potential starters to Triple-A, he will be joining an incredibly full starting pitcher depth chart in the minor leagues. Guessing the minor league rotations at this point in the spring is a fool’s errand, but to give some perspective on how crowded things are, below are starters that should be competing for spots at the various levels.
AAA: Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, Brycen Mautz, Ixan Henderson, Pete Hansen, Max Rajcic, Ian Bedell
AA: Liam Doyle, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Chen-Wei Lin, Hancel Rincon, Jose Davila, Darlin Saladin
A+: Brandon Clarke, Tanner Franklin, Braden Davis, Nate Dohm, Frank Elissalt, Leonel Sequera, Mason Molina, Blake Aita
A: Yhoiker Fajardo, Cade Crossland, Ethan Young, Andrew Dutkanych, Jacob Odle, Tyler Van Dyke
The list above does not even include starting pitchers like Jason Savacool and Brandt Thompson that started a lot of games last year and may still be battling for rotation spots at the various levels. This picture should get even more crowded depending on when and how injured pitchers Cooper Hjerpe, Brian Holiday, Payton Graham, Zack Thompson, and Sem Robberse return to action. There is also the possibility (probability?) that Cade Winquest will not make the Yankees major league roster and will be returned to the Cardinals as well. There is no such thing as too much pitching, particularly when the major league rotation projects as below average, but it will be fascinating to see how the pieces of the puzzle come together this spring.
6. Use It or Lose It
By my count, there are four fringe roster players that must make the opening day roster to guarantee the Cardinals retain their rights. Justin Bruihl, George Soriano, and Bryan Ramos are all out of minor league options. Matt Pushard was the Cardinals’ Rule 5 pick in December and must remain on the active roster all year or be offered back to the Marlins. If these players look good, they will have a leg up on the players with the flexibility to spend time in the minors like Gordon Graceffo, Nick Raquet, Ryan Fernandez, and Bryan Torres.
7. Mountaineers Going Oppo
Both former West Virginia Mountaineers, Victor Scott II and JJ Wetherholt, talked about using the opposite field more effectively in 2026. I wrote at length about Scott last week, but Wetherholt had some interesting comments at Winter Warmup too. He believes the Cardinals’ player development crew was too focused on him adding pull power to his game that he got away from his biggest strength, opposite-field power. It will be interesting to see if either player is making an obvious change to their approach in Spring Training.
8. Sorting Through the Catchers
Tracking Ivan Herrera’s progress behind the plate will be a big storyline this spring. Oli Marmol has already stated that he is going to need more than just spring training to prove he can handle the catcher position, so we can expect the trial run to extend into the regular season. With Herrera still feeling his way through things, two of the Pedro Pages, Jimmy Crooks, Yohel Pozo group will also make the opening day roster. While depth is always better than the alternative, this still seems like a misallocation of resources. Crooks is a real prospect with starter upside and will need regular reps when he is in the big leagues. Pages and Pozo have both proven to be viable major league catchers as well, but one of the three will have to start the season in Triple-A. Is Chaim Bloom still open to trading one of the catchers in spring training? He has shown much more creativity making trades than his predecessor, so I still think there is a chance one of these players is moved before opening day.
9. Sleepers to Make the Roster
Every spring it feels like there are only a couple of battles at the back end of the roster, and then by the time opening day rolls around, Jordan Hicks, Victor Scott, Jordan Walker are on the team, or Matthew Liberatore is in the starting rotation. Injuries or performance could still create some chaos and leave an opening for a surprise addition. The Cardinals are light on right-handed bats and first base types, so could a lane open up for Blaze Jordan? Could Quinn Mathews come into spring throwing strikes and sitting in the mid-90s? If so, he would look like the best pitcher in the organization and could force the Cardinals’ hand. Could Ixan Henderson or Brycen Mautz make a play to start in the bullpen? Individually, the odds for any of these players are pretty low, but there is a decent chance someone completely off the radar forces their way into the picture.
