Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Cardinals Rumors

Cardinals Moving Steven Matz Back Into Rotation

By | at

Steven Matz makes his return to the Cardinals’ rotation tomorrow afternoon. The lefty is scheduled for his first start of the season against the Astros. Matz had opened the season in the bullpen because the Cards had off days in each of the first three weeks. They’re now going into their sixth game of a stretch of 13 consecutive game days, so they’ll move to a six-man rotation.

This has been the plan since Opening Day. St. Louis wanted to give Matthew Liberatore another rotation opportunity after he’d spent most of last season in long relief. Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas were rotation locks, while Andre Pallante has maintained his hold on the fourth starter role. Matz temporarily kicked into relief since it didn’t make much sense to use a six-man rotation when they had so many off days.

Matz has found success over his first five appearances. He has tossed 11 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned). His six strikeouts and 9% swinging strike rate haven’t been overpowering, but he’s throwing a lot of strikes and has gotten grounders at a solid 46.2% rate. Matz’s most recent appearance came on Sunday. He threw 46 pitches in 2 1/3 innings against Philadelphia. He’ll be working on three days rest and hasn’t had a full rotation workload, so he’ll be on a tighter pitch limit tomorrow. Daniel Guerrero of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Matz will be capped around 65 pitches.

The 33-year-old Matz is in the final season of his four-year free agent deal. His Cardinals tenure has mostly been marred by inconsistency and injury, though he did manage a 3.86 ERA in 105 innings two seasons ago. A back injury kept him to 44 1/3 frames over 12 appearances (seven starts) last year. He allowed 5.08 earned runs per nine with a below-average 17.4% strikeout rate. Matz is making $12MM and could net the Cardinals some salary relief and/or a modest return closer to the trade deadline if he has a solid first half.

Cardinals’ Cooper Hjerpe Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

By | at

The Cardinals announced that pitching prospect Cooper Hjerpe has undergone Tommy John surgery. The left-hander will miss the entire 2025 season and won’t be expected back until midway through the 2026 campaign.

Hjerpe, 24, is one of the club’s top pitching prospects. He was selected in the first round, 22nd overall, in the 2022 draft. He received a signing bonus of just under $3.2MM. He has since posted some intriguing minor league numbers, with plenty of strikeouts though also lots of walks. He logged 93 1/3 innings over 2023 and 2024, splitting his time between High-A and Double-A. He allowed 3.37 earned runs per nine, punching out 32.8% of batters faced but also giving out free passes at a 13.7% clip.

His elbow health, or lack thereof, has been a part of the trajectory in that time. He required surgery to remove loose bodies from that elbow in 2023, limiting him to just eight starts that year. In 2024, his final start of the season was on July 2, with an elbow injury shutting him down from then on.

Clubs and pitchers generally prefer to take non-surgical approaches to injuries for as long as they can, as going under the knife is such a lengthy time commitment and there are no guarantees that a player will return to 100% effectiveness afterwards. But in this case, it could be avoided no longer, so Hjerpe is now going to be on the shelf for a while.

Despite the limited workload, Hjerpe is well regarded. Baseball America currently lists him as the #7 prospect in the Cards’ system, highlighting his unique sidearm delivery as he throws an arsenal that includes a fastball, curveball, cutter and changeup. Back in May of last year, Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice of FanGraphs had him in the #5 spot.

If Hjerpe were healthy here in 2025, he likely would have returned to Double-A and could have pushed for a Triple-A promotion at some point during the season. All that will have to be kicked down the road now.

Some interesting decision points will come this winter, as Hjerpe will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft in December. The Cards will have to decide if it’s worth giving him a 40-man spot by the Rule 5 protection deadline in November. He’s obviously an important prospect in the system but has a limited track record and will still be rehabbing at that time. However, grabbing an injured pitcher in the Rule 5 isn’t unprecedented. In the most recent iteration, the Blue Jays took Angel Bastardo from the Red Sox while the Rays grabbed Nate Lavender from the Mets. Both of those pitchers underwent Tommy John surgeries last summer and could potentially return later this year.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Cardinals Place Masyn Winn On 10-Day IL, Activate Nolan Gorman

By | at

The Cardinals announced that shortstop Masyn Winn was placed on the 10-day injured list due to back spasms.  Winn will be replaced by fellow infielder Nolan Gorman, whose own 10-day IL stint (due to a hamstring strain) has now ended with Gorman’s activation to the big league roster.

Winn lasted just an inning into yesterday’s game before his bad back required his removal from the lineup.  Winn also fought through some back problems last season, and told reporters (including MLB.com’s John Denton) yesterday that his current issue “was similar” but “last year was actually a little bit worse.”  Winn felt he might miss a couple of games but wouldn’t need an IL trip, yet the Cardinals have apparently decided to take the cautious route in giving the shortstop 10 days to fully recover.

A second-round pick for St. Louis in the 2020 draft, Winn went from highly-touted prospect to everyday shortstop when he hit .267/.314/.416 with 15 homers over 637 plate appearances in 2024.  With both this above-average hitting and strong glovework in the view of some defensive metrics, Winn earned himself an everyday role in the Cardinals’ lineup, though he was off to a slow start at the plate this year.

Thomas Saggese now looks to play shortstop while Winn is out, though super-utilityman Brendan Donovan will also receive his first taste of shortstop playing time since 2023 as the Cardinals figure out how to juggle their roster.  Having Donovan at shortstop would open up second base for Gorman, since third base will only be a possibility if Nolan Arenado is given a rest day.  Gorman appeared in two games before hitting the IL, but he’ll now make it back after just a minimal 10-day absence.

Octavio Dotel Dies In Roof Collapse Tragedy

By | at

Former major leaguer Octavio Dotel has died in a tragic accident, Major League Baseball confirmed. The news was first reported by multiple outlets in the Dominican Republic, including Diario Libre. The roof of the Jet Set club in Santo Domingo collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As of Tuesday night, at least 98 people have lost their lives while nearly 200 more were injured, according to The Associated Press. Dotel was 51 years old.

Exact details of the tragic situation are difficult to pin down, but it appears hundreds of people were in the venue for a concert when the collapse happened. Dozens of people have been pulled out alive but many have died and the figures are likely to change. Dotel was reportedly trapped for about 11 hours before being rescued and initially survived, but was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.

Dotel was well known to baseball fans because he pitched in the majors for over a decade and bounced around to various teams. He made his major league debut with the Mets in 1999, working in a swing role. He was traded to the Astros ahead of the 2000 season and continued to work both out of the rotation and the bullpen for a while.

He eventually moved into a primary relief role and had more success. Though his earned run average was over 5.00 in both 1999 and 2000, he posted a 2.66 ERA in 2001. He tossed 105 innings over 61 appearances, only four of those being starts.

He continued working as a solid reliever for years after that, bouncing to the Athletics, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Tigers. He finished his career with a 3.78 ERA in 758 games. He recorded 109 saves and 127 holds. He won the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. He was a part of a combined no-hitter with the Astros in 2003. He retired in 2014.

We at MLB Trade Rumors send our deepest condolences to Dotel’s family, friends and fans, as well as the hundreds of others who have been impacted by this awful event.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

Ivan Herrera Out At Least A Month With Bone Bruise

By | at

The Cardinals placed catcher Iván Herrera on the 10-day injured list this morning. His stay will last well beyond the minimum. Manager Oli Marmol told the team’s beat that Herrera was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee (link via MLB.com’s John Denton). He’ll be out for at least a month.

Herrera was out to a blistering start to the season, headlined by his three-homer performance last Wednesday against the Angels. That was remarkably the first three-homer game by a catcher in the franchise’s history, which goes back to the 1880s. The 24-year-old is hitting .381 with four longballs in 24 plate appearances overall. Herrera hit .301/.372/.428 over a career-high 72 games last season, so there’s reason to believe he could be one of the better offensive catchers in baseball.

Marmol confirmed that they’re not considering Willson Contreras as a backup option behind the plate. That was more or less established when St. Louis selected Yohel Pozo from Triple-A Memphis as the corresponding move for Herrera’s IL placement. St. Louis will stick to the plan of keeping Contreras as their everyday first baseman. Pozo will back up Pedro Pagés for the time being.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told Denton and other reporters that the front office will keep an eye on the catching market. That’d presumably be strictly at depth options, as they’ll want to keep Herrera’s path to regular playing time open once he’s healthy. Former fourth-round pick Jimmy Crooks is one of the organization’s more talented prospects as well. He’s getting his first real look at Triple-A pitching after a .321/.410/.498 showing last year in Double-A. The Cards didn’t want to rush him to the majors in response to the Herrera injury, but they could look for an experienced catcher to add organizational depth alongside Crooks in Memphis.

Cardinals Place Ivan Herrera On Injured List, Select Yohel Pozo

By | at

April 7: The Cardinals made these moves official today. To open the necessary 40-man spot, left-hander Zack Thompson was transferred to the 60-day IL. He was shut down in early March due to a tear in his left lat muscle. He is now ineligible to be reinstated until 60 days from Opening Day, which would be late May.

April 6: The Cardinals are planning to place catcher Ivan Herrera on the injured list due to left knee inflammation tomorrow, as club manager Oli Marmol told ESPN’s Buster Olney on this evening’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. Marmol added that initial test results came back clean on Herrera’s knee and that it remains structurally sound despite the impending IL placement. As relayed by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals will select the contract of catcher Yohel Pozo to pair with Pedro Pages behind the plate while Herrera is on the shelf. A 40-man roster spot will need to be vacated to accommodate Pozo.

As noted by Goold earlier today, Herrera’s injury occurred during Game 1 of a double-header between the Red Sox and Cardinals this afternoon and required Herrera to be helped off the field after he felt discomfort when running from first to third on a single. Herrera appeared to be doing better later in the day, as John Denton of MLB.com notes that the backstop was moving around the clubhouse without pain during the layoff between today’s two games against Boston. Even so, it’s hardly a surprise that Herrera is headed for the injured list given physical toll that catching takes on a player’s knees. With Herrera suffering from knee inflammation, that could mean a fairly significant absence even with imaging having revealed no structural damage.

It’s a substantial loss for the Cardinals. Herrera has enjoyed a scorching start to the year, hitting .400/.455/1.100 in his first 22 plate appearances this year with four home runs, three of which came during a single game against the Angels earlier this week. That’s obviously a small sample size, but even Herrera’s career slash line in the majors entering play today sat at an impressive .296/.371/.444, good for a wRC+ of 130 across 102 games. That’s a strong mark for any hitter, but it’s nothing short of phenomenal from the catcher position and would make Herrera one of the best offensive backstops in the sport if maintained over the full 2025 campaign.

Any hope of that will have to be put on hold for now, however, as Herrera is ticketed for the injured list for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, it appears that Pages will step in as the club’s regular catcher. Pages has gotten off to a solid start this year in his own right, going 4-for-10 with a double and a homer against just one strikeout in five games. The 26-year-old is generally not regarded as offering the same offensive ceiling as Herrera, however, and hit just .238/.281/.376 in 68 games for the Cardinals last year. With that being said, he’s a solid defensive catcher who can offer consistently passable offense behind the plate and should have little trouble holding things down while Herrera is away.

Perhaps more interesting than Pages’s turn as the starting catcher is the club’s plans for the backup catcher spot on the club. Veteran Willson Contreras spent the entirety of his big league career as a catcher until this offseason, when the Cardinals moved him to first base. Though generally regarded as an average-to-below-average defensive option behind the plate, Contreras has generally been serviceable as a bat-first catcher throughout his career. That made it something of a shock that the club is not only opting to call up Pozo to serve as Pages’s backup, but that the club didn’t even use Contreras behind the plate during today’s double-header, instead having Pages catch nearly two full games. That suggests that Contreras won’t even be used behind the plate on an emergency basis, even though a lineup with him behind the plate and Alec Burleson or Luken Baker at first base would surely be more offensively robust than one featuring either Pages or Pozo.

Regardless, with Contreras locked in at first base it seems that backup catching duties will go to Pozo for the time being. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Rangers back in 2021 but hasn’t appeared in the majors since. He got into 21 games with Texas that year, hitting a decent .284/.312/.378 in 77 plate appearances along the way. In the years since then, Pozo has been serving as a depth option for the Rangers, Athletics, and now Cardinals at the Triple-A level and has done nothing but rake while doing so. In 329 games across five seasons at the Triple-A level, Pozo has slashed a strong .321/.343/545. While he can’t be reasonably expected to post anything close to that in the majors, his strong work at the highest level of the minors does suggest he may be able to offer some pop in his bat, making him a solid partner for Pages behind the plate while Herrera is out.

Cardinals Place Nolan Gorman On 10-Day IL

By | at

Gorman has delivered four hits (including a homer and a double) in his first nine plate appearances of the season, as he enters what might be a pivot point in his young career.  The former top prospect has shown flashes of his potential over his first three MLB seasons, but his production trailed off badly in 2024, to the point that the Cards optioned Gorman to Triple-A last August.  The crowded nature of the Cards lineup also means that Gorman isn’t getting everyday playing time, and he’ll have to keep hitting in order to carve out more of a regular role.  Missing time to an injury won’t help these endeavors, but it seems like Gorman might just miss the minimum 10 days.

The Cardinals placed Nolan Gorman on the 10-day injured list yesterday (retroactive to April 2), and called up infielder Thomas Saggese from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move.  Gorman is suffering from a right hamstring strain that he suffered while running the bases in last Tuesday’s game, though Gorman told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other reporters that the strain is “super-mild.”  While the injury prevents Gorman from fielding at the moment, he is still able to hit and catch, so he’ll be able to continue with baseball activities while on the IL.

Cardinals’ Prospect Tink Hence Goes On Minor League 60-Day IL

By | at

The Cardinals placed pitching prospect Tink Hence on the minor league 60-day injured list, as reflected on the MiLB.com transaction log. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat that the 6’1″ righty sustained a right rib cage strain.

Hence is the #3 prospect in the St. Louis system at Baseball America. The 22-year-old is coming off a 2.71 ERA showing across 20 starts in Double-A. Hence was dominant on a rate basis. He recorded a fantastic 34.1% strikeout rate against a tolerable 8.1% walk percentage. Durability is the main question, as Hence averaged fewer than four innings per start. He tallied 79 2/3 frames overall.

Baseball America writes that Hence has the stuff and command of a potential top-of-the-rotation arm. Yet he has never reached 100 innings in a professional season. Hence missed a month midway through last season. He’s now evidently going to miss at least the first two months of this year. Once he’s healthy, he’ll be making his Triple-A debut.

The Cardinals added Hence to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He’ll continue to count against the roster because he was placed on the minor league 60-day IL. The Cardinals could have recalled him and placed him on the MLB 60-day injured list to create a roster spot, but that would have begun his service clock.

Offseason In Review: St. Louis Cardinals

By | at

The Cardinals began their offseason by announcing major changes to the baseball operations staff and pledging to refocus on player development. Their efforts to free up playing time for younger players came up empty, however, and they'll run it back with nearly an identical roster.

Major League Signings

Option Decisions

Trades and Waiver Claims

Extensions

  • None

Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

"The message is, 'we're going young,'" Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said at the conclusion of the regular season. DeWitt's comments came on the heels of a press conference wherein longtime president of baseball operations John Mozeliak announced the 2025 season would be his last running baseball operations in St. Louis. Former Red Sox chief baseball officer and Rays senior vice president Chaim Bloom, hired as an advisor the prior offseason, would take the reins in 2026. He'd already agreed to a five-year contract.

It was a jarring change in tone for a Cardinals club that had perennially sought to compete in the National League Central. Mozeliak candidly acknowledged that the team's primary focus would not necessarily be on building the best roster for 2025, but rather on bolstering the organization's player development practice and building out the type of modern baseball operations systems and infrastructure that the Cardinals no longer possessed.

"Yes, this is a reset," Mozeliak said at the time. "Yes, this is going to be where we’re not focusing on necessarily building the best possible roster we can."

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

Poll: Who Will Win The NL Central?

By | at

With Opening Day just over the horizon, teams all around the league are gearing up for another pennant chase in hopes of being crowned this year’s World Series champion. Of course, there’s still another seven months to go before someone raises the Commissioner’s Trophy. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. We’ll be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. That series already covered the NL West, where the Dodgers were viewed as an overwhelming favorite, and will now move on to the NL Central. Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Milwaukee Brewers (93-69)

The perennially underrated Brewers won the NL Central for a second consecutive year last season, finishing ten games up on the second-place Cubs and Cardinals. Impressively, they did so after losing both star manager Craig Counsell and ace right-hander Corbin Burnes the previous offseason. They’ll need to work that same magic to stay on top of their division this year after a winter that once again saw them part ways with major pieces. This time, longtime shortstop Willy Adames departed for San Francisco in free agency while the club traded star closer Devin Williams to the Yankees in exchange for prospect Caleb Durbin and southpaw Nestor Cortes.

Even without those stars, the Brewers could make some noise in a relatively weak division. A strong outfield anchored by Christian Yelich and Jackson Chourio figures to impress once again in 2025, and William Contreras has blossomed into a true star behind the plate. Meanwhile, veteran ace Brandon Woodruff is expected back sometime early this year after missing 2024 due to shoulder surgery, joining existing rotation pieces like Freddy Peralta and Aaron Civale to form a strong group. The club’s first challenge of the year will be getting through the early weeks of the season with a patchwork rotation, as each of Woodruff, Tobias Myers, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, and Robert Gasser figure to open the year on the injured list.

Chicago Cubs (83-79)

After a second consecutive 83-79 finish in 2024, the Cubs made some major changes over the offseason. The club said goodbye to its longest-tenured player as Kyle Hendricks departed for Anaheim, replacing him in the rotation with southpaw Matthew Boyd, and swapped out Cody Bellinger for Kyle Tucker, a clear offensive upgrade that cost them third baseman Isaac Paredes to pull off. A reconstructed bullpen featuring Ryan Pressly, Ryan Brasier, Caleb Thielbar, and Eli Morgan looks strong on paper than the relief corps that was expected to be anchored by Adbert Alzolay and Hector Neris last year, as well. Despite those on-paper improvements, the Cubs face plenty of questions entering 2025. Matt Shaw, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and even Miguel Amaya offer plenty of upside at third base, in center field, and behind the plate respectively but none are surefire offensive contributors.

There’s still plenty to like, however. Tucker, Seiya Suzuki, and Ian Happ provide an incredibly strong floor in the outfield, and the addition of Justin Turner offers protection against a sophomore slump for 2024 standout rookie Michael Busch at first base while Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson figure to offer their perennially excellent defense alongside league average offense up the middle. Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga offer a quality one-two punch at the front of the club’s rotation, as well. It’s not too difficult to see a path back to the playoffs for the Cubs this year despite the questions, and adding a true star like Tucker ahead of his walk year could be the boost they need to recapture the division in 2025.

St. Louis Cardinals (83-79)

2024 was a mixed bag for the Cardinals, as they managed to get back over .500 following a disastrous 2023 campaign but saw both Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt fail to live up to expectations as they fell short of the playoffs once again. The struggles of the last two years prompted the Cardinals front office to put a focus on developing young players and parting ways with veterans this winter, though no-trade clauses wielded by Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, and Arenado prevented that goal from coming to fruition outside of the departures of veterans like Goldschmidt and Kyle Gibson via free agency.

That’s left the Cardinals with a roster that looks simultaneously similar and slightly downgraded from last year. Phil Maton was the club’s only big league free agent addition this winter, offering a veteran set-up option for closer Ryan Helsley after Andrew Kittredge departed in free agency. Outside of that, the club’s moves were largely internal. Contreras replaced Goldschmidt at first base to make room for a catching tandem of Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages, Matthew Liberatore is sliding into the club’s rotation from the bullpen, and the club appears committed to giving more regular opportunities to younger players like Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, and Alec Burleson. St. Louis’s hopes of finding success in 2025 likely hinge on those young players making the most of their opportunities this year and taking big steps forward.

Cincinnati Reds (77-85)

2024 was a deeply disappointed season in Cincinnati, as a club that many expected to blossom instead fell apart in the face of injuries all over the roster. Strong performances from stars Elly De La Cruz and Hunter Greene aside, there were few positive takeaways from last season. Fortunately, the club made substantial changes ahead of the 2025 season. They got things started in October by hiring future Hall of Famer Terry Francona to manage the club, and since then they’ve added Gavin Lux, Taylor Rogers, Jose Trevino, and Brady Singer in free agency while bringing back Nick Martinez and signing Austin Hays.

It was a busy offseason that added a number of solid complimentary pieces, all of whom should help the Reds avoid a total collapse like they suffered last year. Even so, the club will need better health from its core players to contend. The return of Matt McLain should offer a big boost, while healthy seasons from TJ Friedl in center field, Jeimer Candelario at third base, and Nick Lodolo in the rotation could be game changing as well. The pieces appear to be in place for brighter days in 2025, but whether that will be enough to get the Reds back to the postseason for the first time in a 162-game season since 2013 remains to be seen.

Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86)

Pittsburgh hasn’t finished above fourth place in the NL Central since 2016, and even a full season from reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes won’t be enough to pull the club back into postseason contention on its own. The Pirates had a relatively quiet offseason this winter as they brought Andrew Heaney into the rotation alongside the additions of Spencer Horwitz and Tommy Pham to the lineup but made few additions beyond that trio. Those additions join a solid enough nucleus that includes Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, Oneil Cruz, and Bryan Reynolds, but a lineup light on impact and a bullpen still anchored by David Bednar even after a 5.77 ERA season last year raise questions about the club’s ability to compete before even considering the fact that Jones and Horwitz are both presently nursing injuries.

That’s not to say there’s no hope for the Pirates this year, however. Skenes is perhaps the best young pitcher in the entire sport, and even if Jones misses time Keller, Heaney, and Bailey Falter make for a solid rotation that should keep the club in most games. A big season from Horwitz once he returns from the IL along with steps forward for young players like Cruz, Endy Rodriguez, and Nick Gonzales could lift the lineup well above its projections even if the club continues to get little value from former 1-1 pick Henry Davis, and Bednar returning to the form he showed in his previous back-to-back All-Star campaigns would go along way as well.

__________________________________________

It was a fairly busy offseason in the NL Central, and while the division still appears weaker at the top than its rivals on the coasts it nonetheless stands out as the only one in the National League where all five clubs are making some attempt to contend in 2025. Will the Brewers be able to hold onto the division crown for a third consecutive season? Will an up-and-coming club like the Cubs or Reds take a big enough step forward to wrest control? Or, perhaps, the Cardinals or Pirates will get the steps forward from young pieces necessary to surprise? Have your say in the poll below:

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top