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Cardinals Outright Andrew Suárez, Casey Lawrence

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The Cardinals announced on Thursday that pitchers Andrew Suárez and Casey Lawrence have elected free agency after being outrighted off of the 40-man roster. In addition, the team sent three more players, right-hander Kyle Leahy and infielders Irving Lopez and Juniel Querecuto, outright to Triple-A Memphis.

The moves clear five spots on the team’s 40-man roster, bringing the total down to 35. Not so coincidentally, the Cardinals currently have five players on the 60-day IL who will need spots on the 40-man following the conclusion of the World Series: Dylan Carlson, Brendan Donovan, Packy Naughton, Wilking Rodriguez, and Guillermo Zuñiga.

Suárez appeared in 13 games for St. Louis this season, pitching 27.2 innings in a long relief role. The southpaw was little more than a mop-up man, posting a 7.16 ERA and a 5.67 SIERA, while walking nearly as many batters as he struck out. He did, however, look much more comfortable at Triple-A, posting a 4.08 ERA in 64 innings with the Memphis Redbirds.

Lawrence didn’t have much more success than Suárez, pitching to a 6.59 ERA and 5.05 SIERA in 27.1 innings of long relief. Those aren’t great numbers for the 35-year-old journeyman, but on the bright side, he did a good job limiting hard contact for the second year in a row, holding opposing batters to an 88.1-mph average exit velocity and finishing with a respectable 4.39 xERA.

Leahy appeared very briefly for the Cardinals in 2023, pitching in three games, facing 15 batters, giving up four runs, and recording five outs. He was optioned in mid-July, barely two weeks after making his MLB debut. Unfortunately for the 26-year-old righty, his numbers at Triple-A weren’t much more impressive than they were in the majors; he posted a 9.74 ERA and a 6.63 FIP through the final two months of the season.

Lopez has been in the Cardinals organization since 2017, when he was taken in the 19th round of the draft. After a strong showing at Triple-A, batting .315 with a 1.001 OPS in 19 games, the 28-year-old made his MLB debut at the end of September. He went hitless in 11 at-bats but recorded his first big league RBI on a sacrifice fly in the final game of the season.

Querecuto, a utility infielder, was a mid-September call-up, appearing in nine games and splitting his time between first, second, and third base. He went 2-for-20 with a single, a double, and a walk. Having been outrighted previously in his career – back in 2016 with the Rays – Querecuto could have elected free agency instead of accepting his outright assignment, but evidently, he has decided to remain in the Cardinals organization. After bouncing around between five organizations in his professional career, it makes sense that he’s interested in sticking with the team that gave him his first shot at big league action in seven years.

Cardinals Reportedly Interested In Yuki Matsui

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The Cardinals are interested in left-hander Yuki Matsui, per a report from Natsuki Une of Yahoo! Japan.

Matsui, 28 next week, is a left-handed reliever who has been pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the past 10 years. He’s appeared in 501 games in that time, posting an earned run average of 2.40 while recording 236 saves. Here in 2023, he’s been even more impressive, with a 1.57 ERA in 59 appearances while recording 39 saves. He struck out 32.4% of batters faced this year while walking just 5.9%. In addition to his excellent results, Matsui is notable for his size, listed at just 5’8″ and 167 pounds.

Though his frame may be atypical, it’s hard to argue with the results. It was reported a couple of weeks back that Matsui would explore signing with major league clubs and it seems like he is already garnering interest. Due to debuting at a young age, he is going to be a full free agent this winter and any signing club wouldn’t be required to pay a posting fee to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, the club he has played with for his entire career thus far.

Matsui has been a mainstay of MLBTR’s NPB Players to Watch series this year, with Dai Takegami Podziewski highlighting Matsui’s four-pitch arsenal, featuring a fastball, splitter, slider and curveball. The lefty reportedly had some trouble adapting to the ball in the World Baseball Classic, which is closer to the ball used in MLB. There’s always some uncertainty with foreign players since they are unproven in North America. Matsui’s size and issues with the WBC ball perhaps add to that, but clubs are often intrigued by the possibility of unearthing a hidden gem.

It seems the Cardinals are one such club, based on this report. That isn’t terribly surprising, since pitching was a notable weak spot for the 2023 club. The bullpen as a whole posted an ERA of 4.47 on the year, putting them 23rd in the league. They also traded impending free agents Jordan Hicks and Chris Stratton at the deadline. In terms of left-handers specifically, they have JoJo Romero, John King and Andrew Suárez on the roster. Romero finished the season strong but still has just 67 career games at the major league level. King has posted good results by keeping the ball on the ground but doesn’t get many strikeouts. Suarez had an ERA of 7.16 in the majors this year.

The Cardinals have plenty of work to do this winter, looking to add three starters to their rotation, but adding another lefty to their bullpen would be a sensible upgrade as well. They will reportedly make Matsui a formal offer after the Japan Series, the NPB equivalent of the World Series, which is scheduled for October 28 to November 5. Like the World Series, it’s a best-of-seven, meaning it could end earlier if it doesn’t go the full seven. But given Matsui’s excellent season in Japan, the Cardinals surely won’t be the only club interested. The Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Padres have also been scouting him, per the report. Matsui also reportedly has a four-year offer to stay with the Golden Eagles.

Cardinals Claim Buddy Kennedy From Athletics

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October 26: Right-hander Adam Wainwright has officially retired, per the transactions tracker at MLB.com. That appears to have opened up the 40-man roster spot to make this claim possible. Wainwright announced coming into the 2023 season that it would be his last.

October 25: The Cardinals announced that they have claimed infielder Buddy Kennedy off waivers from the Athletics.

Kennedy, 25, has a small amount of major league experience, getting into 40 games over the past two seasons with the Diamondbacks. He hit .206/.293/.299 in his 123 plate appearances while playing second and third base. He was claimed off waivers by the A’s in September, though they kept him in the minors on optional assignment.

The infielder has fared far better in the minors, including in 2023. He hit .318/.444/.481 in 417 Triple-A plate appearances while with the D’Backs, walking more than he struck out and producing a 133 wRC+. He slumped after getting claimed by the A’s, though in a small sample size of just 46 trips to the plate. In addition to playing second and third base, he also saw some time at first base and left field in the minors.

The Cardinals have plenty of multi-positional players on the roster but never seem to have enough, with players like Taylor Motter, José Fermín and Juniel Querecuto getting playing time in 2023. It is speculated that the Cards will put some of their position players on the trading block this winter, since they are in dire need of starting pitching upgrades. If that indeed comes to pass, adding Kennedy to the roster gives them an extra layer of depth to call upon when the time comes. Kennedy still has one option season remaining.

Yadier Molina Puts "90 Percent Chance" Of Coaching Job With Cardinals

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  • In other Cardinals news, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered a wide slate of questions related to the Cards in his recent chat with readers, including the possibility of Jordan Hicks and Phil Maton being free agents targets for the team this winter.  The Cardinals traded Hicks to the Blue Jays at the deadline, but with Hicks headed back to the open market, “there will be a conversation about a reunion” in St. Louis, Goold writes.  Maton could also be “a name to watch,” both due to his ability and perhaps due to some local ties, as Maton went to high school about 90 minutes away from St. Louis in Chatham, Illinois.

With Yadier Molina and the Cardinals in talks about a coaching job for the longtime catcher, Molina discussed the situation in an interview with 550 KTRS radio (hat tip to Luis Nolla of KTRS for the partial transcript).  “I think there is something cooking with St. Louis,” Molina said, estimating “a 90 percent chance that it happens.”  After retiring following the 2022 season, Molina revealed that he had offers for some kind of coaching roles from both the Cardinals last year and from the Marlins.

Latest On JoJo Romero

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  • Cardinals left-hander JoJo Romero is in a good place following his season-ending knee injury last month, per Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Guerrero notes that Romero made progress regarding the injury throughout the month, but did not return to the big league roster in hopes of ensuring the injury was fully healed and his mechanics wouldn’t be impacted headed into the offseason. Romero was a revelation for St. Louis in the second half as he took over the closer’s role from Jordan Hicks, posting a 3.18 ERA, 35.8% strikeout rate and a 0.79 FIP in his final 17 innings of the season. His overall season numbers were also impressive, as well: the lefty posted a 3.68 ERA and 2.22 FIP across 27 appearances this season. Assuming he’s healthy in time for Spring Training, Romero figures to once again play a significant role for the Cardinals out of the bullpen next year.

Yadier Molina Reportedly Interested In Cardinals' Bench Coach Job

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  • The Cardinals were recently reported to have interest in bringing longtime catcher Yadier Molina back into the fold just one season after his retirement, this time as a member of the coaching staff.  Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat provided more details on the situation this morning, indicating that Molina reportedly has interest in acting as the club’s bench coach. As Jones notes, the contract status of current bench coach Joe McEwing is unclear, though he adds that it’s believed the Cardinals at least hold an option on his services for 2024. Jones also notes the difficult situation that Molina’s presence as bench coach could create for manager Oli Marmol; Marmol is entering the final year of his contract with the club next season and would likely face greater pressure in 2024 with a player of Molina’s status within the organization acting as his number two, particularly after Molina got his feet wet in a managerial role as skipper of team Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic earlier this year.

Cardinals Have Discussed Coaching Job With Yadier Molina

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The Cardinals and Yadier Molina have had discussions about him joining the major league coaching staff next year, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. The report adds that there’s mutual interest from both parties.

Molina is obviously well known around baseball and particularly in St. Louis. He just wrapped up a playing career that went from 2004 to 2022, all of that in Cardinal red. Now 41, he has previously expressed a desire to move towards managing/coaching in his post-playing career, having already gotten some experience outside of Major League Baseball. Molina has done some managing in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League as well as acting as skipper for Puerto Rican teams in international play, including the most recent World Baseball Classic.

His potential role with the Cardinals next year isn’t exactly clear, but Woo relays that it’s expected it would be an everyday position. It doesn’t currently appear as though any of the current coaches are in jeopardy, with Molina likely to be an addition rather than a replacement. Woo points out that the club had one of the smaller staffs in the league in 2023, with some players apparently expressing that there “simply wasn’t enough coaching to go around,” in Woo’s words.

Adding another coach, whether Molina or someone else, would obviously help if that’s a real problem for manager Oli Marmol and the rest of the staff. But Molina specifically could be a good fit, given his legendary status in the organization. There’s also the fact that the post-Molina era didn’t kick off with a bang. During Molina’s time as the club’s backstop, they made frequent postseason appearances and only finished below .500 once, back in 2007. But the first season after his retirement saw the club go 71-91 and fall to the basement of the National League Central.

There were whispers that some members of the St. Louis pitching staff weren’t happy with the transition to Willson Contreras, who was signed last offseason to take over Molina’s job behind the plate. Contreras was even moved off the catching position for a time this year, working as the designated hitter only, though he was back behind the plate a week later. If there’s any lingering discord between the pitchers and Contreras, perhaps Molina’s presence as a coach could help to bridge that gap.

Turning to the club’s roster, Woo discusses the club’s impending rotation work. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has openly expressed a desire to bring in three starting pitchers this winter, in order to replace the retiring Adam Wainwright and impending free agents Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery, both of whom were traded prior to the deadline. Free agency is obviously one avenue to pursuing upgrades, but the Cardinals haven’t traditionally been big spenders in that regard. Their largest free agent signing in franchise history is the $120MM deal they gave to Matt Holliday back in 2010, with Mike Leake’s $80MM deal in 2015 the largest they’ve given to a pitcher.

It seems they are giving some thought to breaking one or both of those records. They have already been connected to Sonny Gray and Aaron Nola, each of whom would likely require a deal larger than Leake’s in order to sign. Woo adds that the club is open to a reunion with Montgomery, though he’s likely pushing his next contract well into nine-figure territory, based both on his regular season work and strong playoff performance with the Rangers thus far.

Woo also adds that the Cards will “check in” on Japanese hurler Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last week that the club is indeed interested in Yamamoto, though the extent of that interest isn’t clear. Speculation around Yamamoto’s potential contract seems to suggest he could be in line for something around $200MM, based both on his youth and his excellent results in Nippon Professional Baseball. Having just turned 25 in August, he’s far younger than typical free agents, and he also has an ERA of 1.82 over his seven NPB seasons.

Giving out a mega deal for a starting pitcher would be new territory for the Cards, but it sounds like they are exploring every avenue in order to put this rough season behind them. That will likely involve trading from their position player mix as well, though who they are willing to part with remains to be seen.

21 Players Elect Free Agency

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With the offseason quickly approaching, a number of players elect minor league free agency on a regular basis. Separate from MLB free agents, who reach free agency five days after the World Series by accumulating six years of service time in the big leagues, eligible minor league players can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season comes to a close. Each of these players were outrighted off of their organization’s 40-man roster at some point during the season and either have been outrighted previously in their career or have the service time necessary to reach free agency since they were not added back to their former club’s rosters. For these players, reaching free agency is the expected outcome, and there will surely be more in the coming weeks. Here at MLBTR, we’ll provide occasional updates as players continue to elect minor league free agency.

Here is the next batch, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Pitchers

Iván Herrera Eligible For Fourth Option Year

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The Cardinals were expected to have a tough decision to make behind the plate this winter, as catcher Iván Herrera was projected to be out of options in 2024. With backstops Willson Contreras and Andrew Knizner also present on the club’s roster, that figured to serve as something of a ticking clock and made Herrera into a speculative trade candidate. However, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relays that Herrera is eligible for a fourth option year.

A player has three option seasons and burns one by spending 20 days on optional assignment in a given year, which is when they are on the 40-man roster but sent to the minors and not on the active roster. Herrera was added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster in November of 2020 and has been optioned to the minors in each of the three seasons since, surpassing the 20-day threshold in each year. That is why it was presumed that he would be out of options in 2024 and unable to be sent to the minors without first being put on waivers.

Teams are sometimes granted a fourth option, which is usually due to the player missing extensive time due to injury. However, the specific nature of the fourth option criteria isn’t necessarily related to injury. Per an explanation at MLB.com, a player is eligible for a fourth option if they have exhausted their three options but haven’t yet played five full seasons. A “full” season is defined as 90 days on an active roster, either in the majors or minors.

Herrera’s first two professional seasons saw him mostly play short-season rookie ball in 2017 and 2018, spending less than 90 days active. He was active in the minors for all of 2019 but then the minor leagues were cancelled by the pandemic in 2020, and this seems to be the significant factor. Per Goold, 2020 doesn’t count as a “full” season it therefore appears that Herrera only has four of those “full” seasons as a professional: 2019 and then the three most recent campaigns.

At this point, it’s unclear if the Cardinals have petitioned the league for a fourth option on Herrera or if it will be granted, but it seems as though he meets the criteria. If the option is indeed granted, it could change how the club approaches its offseason.

Herrera is one of the club’s better prospects and has little left to prove in the minors. He has hit .282/.416/.450 at the Triple-A level and also performed well in a small sample of major league action this year. But Contreras is a lock for the starting role, given he signed a five-year, $87.5MM contract less than a year ago. Knizner also had a decent year in a backup role, hitting .241/.288/.424 for a wRC+ of 92. He made $1.1MM this year and would be in line for another arbitration raise, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a 2024 salary of $2.2MM.

Since the Cardinals are openly hoping to find three rotation upgrades this offseason, it had been speculated that they might put Herrera on the trading block in order to help them achieve that goal. That may still prove to be the case, but having an extra option at least opens the possibility of them having those discussions with less urgency since they may be able to keep Herrera in Triple-A for another year. Or perhaps it would add the appeal of Herrera to other clubs, since he might not have to be guaranteed an active roster spot.

It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out this winter, with the Cards looking like they could be one of the more active clubs in the months to come. It’s also possible that there are many more players in the same boat as Herrera, since all of the minor leagues were canceled in 2020 and it would appear that hundreds of players also didn’t get credited with a “full” season for it.

Cardinals Interested In Aaron Nola, Sonny Gray

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Adding as many as three starting pitchers is a stated offseason goal for Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, and it isn’t surprising that the club is already plotting out some notable free agent pursuits.  While the Cards will cast a wide berth across the free agent pitching market, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Aaron Nola and Sonny Gray are two pitchers in particular “the Cardinals have identified as good fits and plan to approach to see if the feeling is mutual.”

In something of a pitching-heavy free agent class, Nola (30 years old) and Gray (34 next month) are two of the top names available.  Both will be entering free agency for the first time due to contract extensions signed earlier in this careers, and since both pitchers will undoubtedly receive and reject qualifying offers, the Cardinals would have to give up $500K in international bonus money and their second-highest pick in the 2024 draft as compensation for a signing.

St. Louis has traditionally been somewhat modest in its dips into the open market, as Matt Holliday’s seven-year, $120MM deal from the 2009-10 offseason remains the biggest contract the Cardinals have ever given to a free agent player.  In terms of pitching contracts, the Cards gave Mike Leake five years/$80MM during the 2015-16 offseason but that deal didn’t work out, to the point that St. Louis traded Leake before the contract was even two years old.  More recently, the Cardinals signed Steven Matz for four years and $44MM two winters ago, though Matz’s performance has been inconsistent and he has battled some injury problems.

With rotation help such a glaring need, however, the Cardinals might have no choice but to test free agency for the pitchers they need, particularly front-of-the-rotation types.  Both Gray and Nola had pretty comparable overall numbers and Nola actually had the better SIERA (3.75 to 3.95) of the two pitchers, though Gray ended up with a 2.79 ERA to Nola’s 4.46 ERA — perhaps underlining the difference between the Twins’ defense and the Phillies’ much weaker defense.

Goold noted that the Cardinals are among the many teams who have scouted Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and that the team could explore a reunion with Jordan Montgomery after St. Louis dealt Montgomery to the Rangers at the trade deadline.  Looking at the market as a whole, if the Cards are indeed leaning towards Gray and Nola as their top choices, that gives some hint as to the Cardinals’ spending range.

Gray and Nola will each command healthy contracts, yet not in the stratosphere of a Shohei Ohtani (who won’t even pitch in 2024 anyway due to Tommy John surgery) or perhaps even Yamamoto, whose contract might approach $200MM because he is only 25 years old.  Montgomery and Blake Snell are two more of the top starters available, though it is perhaps noteworthy that both are represented by the Boras Corporation, whereas Gray is repped by Bo McKinnis and Nola by Paragon.  While the Cardinals have rostered and acquired several Scott Boras clients over the years, Boras’ penchant for encouraging clients to wait until deeper into the offseason to sign might not be ideal for a St. Louis team that would probably prefer to get its top-end pitching acquisitions out of the way sooner rather than later.

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