Cardinals Announce 2024 Opening Day Roster

CARDINALS ANNOUNCE 2024 OPENING DAY ROSTER

13 PLAYERS DEVELOPED WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION; FIVE ROOKIES ON TEAM

LOS ANGELES, CA, March 27, 2024 – The St. Louis Cardinals will open their 133rd season of play in the National League tomorrow afternoon when they visit the Los Angeles Dodgers at 1:10 p.m. PDT/3:10 p.m. CDT in the opening game of the 162-game Major League Baseball regular season.

The team’s 26-player active roster includes six first-time Cardinals (Brandon Crawford, Ryan Fernandez, Kyle Gibson, Andrew Kittredge, Riley O’Brien and Victor Scott II), five rookies (Ryan Fernandez, Victor Scott II, Michael Siani, Riley O’Brien and Masyn Winn) and 13 players who were developed within the Cardinals organization.

RHP Sonny Gray (15-day, right hamstring strain); RHP Keynan Middleton (15-day, right forearm flexor strain), LHP Drew Rom (15-day, left shoulder biceps tendinitis); OF/IF Tommy Edman (10-day, right wrist sprain); OF Lars Nootbaar (10-day, left rib contusion); OF Dylan Carlson (10-day, left AC sprain) will begin the season on the Injured List. All of the injured list players, except for Dylan Carlson, are backdated to March 25. Carlson’s injury is dated to March 26.

The team selected the contract of Victor Scott II today, and optioned INF José Fermín to the Memphis (AAA) roster. 1B/OF Jared Young was placed on outright waivers, making room for Scott II on the team’s 40-player Major League roster.

The following is the Cardinals 2024 Opening Day active roster and injured list:

PITCHERS (13): Ryan Fernandez-RHP, Giovanny Gallegos-RHP, Kyle Gibson-RHP, Ryan Helsley-RHP, Andrew Kittredge-RHP, Matthew Liberatore-LHP, Lance Lynn-RHP, Steven Matz-LHP, Miles Mikolas-RHP, Riley O’Brien-RHP, Andre Pallante-RHP, JoJo Romero-LHP and Zack Thompson-LHP;

CATCHERS (2): Willson Contreras and Iván Herrera;

INFIELDERS (7): Nolan Arenado, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Crawford, Brendan Donovan, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Masyn Winn;

OUTFIELDERS (4): Alec Burleson, Victor Scott II, Michael Siani and Jordan Walker;

INJURED LIST (6): Dylan Carlson-OF, Tommy Edman-OF/INF, Sonny Gray-RHP, Lars Nootbaar-OF, Keynan Middleton-RHP and Drew Rom-LHP.

– STL –

Little surprises here, as the roster was pretty much set after yesterday’s demotions; I also predicted that Young (or Fermin) would be removed from the 40-man for Scott’s promotion.

Now the question is how does this team fare? The rotation is shakey, especially with out Gray to start the season. People are pointing out that they could have had Jordan Montgomery and Trevor Bauer for the same price as Lynn and Gibson; hindsight is 20/20 (also pointing out that I predicted a 1 year, $25M contract for Monty). The bullpen is strong though; they’ll need to be when 3 out of 5 starters won’t go past the 5th inning.

I like the lineup, but they are going to be streaky and there are some questions. We know what Goldschmidt and Arenado can do; the question is can they get back to that level? Gorman and Walker seem primed for breakouts this year. Can the team get consistent production from Winn, Burleson (while he’s starting), and Scott (also while he’s starting)? Can Donovan return to form after surgery? How long will Edman, Noot, and Carlson be out for? If everything goes right, they should be good.

The bench is weak though; Carpenter and Crawford offer more on the bench than in an actual game. Siani is only a late inning replacement. The lone bright spot is Herrera, who could be starting for other teams. At least the team will look stronger after everyone is off the IL.