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Octavio Dotel Dies In Roof Collapse Tragedy

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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."

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Poll: Who Will Win The NL Central?

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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:

Cardinals’ Nick Anderson Clears Waivers, Will Report To Triple-A

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March 24: Anderson was not claimed and will open the season in Triple-A Memphis. He has a straight opt-out clause (as opposed to his current upward mobility clause) on May 30, per Alexander.

March 22: Anderson will indeed be exercising his upward mobility clause tomorrow, KPRC 2’s Ari Alexander reports.

March 18: The Cardinals reassigned righty Nick Anderson to minor league camp, but the right-hander has an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. Effectively, that forces the Cardinals to make him available to the 29 other teams and let him go if another club is willing to place him on its 40-man roster.

More specifically, MLBTR has learned that Anderson will be available to other clubs on March 23. They’ll have 24 hours to decide whether they want to claim him and place him on the 40-man roster. If another team is willing to do so, the Cardinals will have 72 hours to counter by placing him on their own 40-man roster; if they choose not to, they have to let him go. Anderson’s deal contains a $1.1MM base salary in the big leagues.

Anderson, 34, has had a rollercoaster career. At times, he’s been flat-out dominant, as was the case in 2019-20, when he pitched 81 1/3 innings of 2.77 ERA ball with a ridiculous 42.2% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. He’s never quite recreated that success but has generally been effective when healthy. That, unfortunately, has proven to be a major caveat for the oft-injured righty.

Though he debuted in 2019 and has more than five years of MLB service, Anderson only has 158 1/3 innings of major league work under his belt. He’s been sidelined by a laundry list of injuries, including a shoulder strain, and internal brace procedure on his right ulnar collateral ligament, plantar fasciitis, a back strain and forearm inflammation. All of those injuries have occurred since 2020.

It’s been a mixed bag for Anderson this spring. He’s had a few solid outings but was tagged for four runs in one-third of an inning midway through camp. In his final appearance before being sent out to minor league camp, he gave up a pair of solo homers in an inning of work. Overall, he’s yielded eight runs on 11 hits and two walks and six strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames — a grisly 13.50 ERA. It’s a small sample that’s heavily skewed by that one particularly awful outing, but it’s still not an ideal set of results when hoping another club might come calling with a 40-man roster opportunity.

Rocky spring notwithstanding, Anderson touts a 3.18 earned run average in the majors and has paired that with plus strikeout and walk rates of 31.6% and 7.2%, respectively. If a club watched him during Grapefruit League play and felt his raw stuff outshined the small-sample run prevention numbers, it’s feasible that his track record and current health could prompt another team to take a look. His $1.1MM base salary is only $340K north of league minimum. However, because he has five-plus years of MLB service, Anderson would need to consent to be optioned with another team, which only throws another layer into the equation when weighing the possibility of adding him once he’s formally available.

Cardinals Set Opening Day Roster, Plan To Use Six-Man Rotation In Mid-April

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Reports last week suggested that the Cardinals were thinking about utilizing a six-man rotation as a way of finding innings for both the veterans on the staff and for the younger arms the Cards are prioritizing in this semi-rebuild year for the franchise.  Manager Oliver Marmol confirmed to reporters (including The Athletic’s Katie Woo) today that the Cardinals will indeed use six starters during a busy stretch of the schedule that will see St. Louis play 26 games over 27 days from April 11 through May 7.

There is a bit of surprise in which starters will be involved in the expanded rotation, as the Cards optioned Michael McGreevy to Triple-A Memphis today.  McGreevy is one of the Cardinals’ top pitching prospects, and after impressing in his first 23 MLB innings last season, seemed poised to break camp with the team after posting a 1.08 ERA over 16 2/3 spring innings.

However, Matthew Liberatore also turned heads in camp, with a 1.62 across his own 16 2/3 frames of work.  As a result, Liberatore was named as one of the initial starting five (along with Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, and Andre Pallante), with Steven Matz slated to work as a long man before becoming the sixth starter.

Obviously, a single injury could change these plans considerably, and some other health issues in camp also perhaps factored in the Cardinals’ plans.  Zack Thompson and Drew Rom are both dealing with injuries, so McGreevy became needed as a Triple-A depth arm given the lack of other ready options.  Given how rare it is for a pitching staff to get through a season in one piece, it might not be long before McGreevy gets another opportunity in the Show.

The “you can never have too much pitching” mantra looms large in what is technically a surplus situation for the Cardinals pitching staff.  Yet the number of arms available also relates to a strangely quiet offseason, as the Cards ended up retaining most of their veteran talent despite their stated goal last fall to view 2025 as something of a re-development year.  The team’s inability to trade Nolan Arenado garnered the most headlines, yet on the pitching end, St. Louis also opted to keep Fedde, who has only one year remaining on his contract.  Gray had no interest in waiving his no-trade clause to go elsewhere, and trading Mikolas or Matz (also free agents next winter) could’ve probably required the Cards to eat some money since both pitchers are coming off down years.

Mikolas or Matz could be more plausibly moved closer to the deadline, perhaps in salary-dump fashion once some of their salaries are already doled out over the first half.  Fedde might be one of the most sought-after rental pitchers at the deadline if he matches his 2024 form, though naturally the Cardinals are hoping they can return to contention this year, rather than look to sell at the deadline.

Marmol also announced the rest of the Cardinals’ roster for Opening Day, including the news that Victor Scott II won the team’s center field competition.  Scott was battling with Michael Siani for the job, yet Scott outhit not only Siani (who struggled badly) but also just about the rest of the team by posting a 1.225 OPS over 49 plate appearances.  Scott may not play every single day since Lars Nootbaar also figures to get some time in center as the Cardinals juggle around their lineup, but Scott has put himself in position to get the lion’s share of playing time up the middle.

Arenado, Willson Contreras, and Masyn Winn will be the only true lineup regulars for St. Louis, and Brendan Donovan is also expected to play every day but at multiple positions.  Moving Arenado would’ve helped open up third base and a lineup position to get more players onto the field, yet Marmol said he is confident of the team’s plans to rotate players around without necessarily adhering to strict platoons.

“I’m going to do my absolute best to get everybody the necessary amount of at-bats for us to know what we have at the end of the year….We’ll see what this looks like in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.  But we’ll have a [lineup] rotation that while we’re all healthy, still gets guys at-bats,” Marmol said.

Infielder Jose Fermin won’t be part of this mix in the early going, as Fermin was optioned to Triple-A today.  Woo notes that Fermin was told earlier this week that he would be part of the Opening Day roster, yet the Cardinals’ plan apparently changed in the last few days.  Without Fermin, the Cards don’t have a proper backup shortstop, yet the versatile Donovan will handle that role if Winn is given a breather.

Poll: The Cardinals’ Center Field Battle

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As the Cardinals look to embrace a youth movement in John Mozeliak’s final year at the helm of the club, their inability to trade Nolan Arenado this winter has caused some complications. With Arenado ticketed for everyday playing time at third base, St. Louis now has five players for three spots in the lineup: second base, left field, and center field. While none of those five players can play all three of those positions, the versatility of Brendan Donovan to play either second base or left field connects the decisions made in the outfield to those at the keystone.

Donovan and Lars Nootbaar are both more or less guaranteed everyday playing time with the Cardinals, and one of them figures to be the club’s starting left fielder. Should Donovan start in left field, it would push Nootbaar to center, and that would open up second base for Nolan Gorman, who would have taken over for Arenado if the veteran were traded. Meanwhile, starting Nootbaar in left would push Donovan back onto the infield, and in doing so would open up center field for one of Michael Siani or Victor Scott II.

Scott and Siani are very similar players. Siani is a little over a year older than Scott, headed into his age-25 season while Scott has only just turned 24, and the pair combined for nearly 85% of the club’s innings in center field last year. Both are left-handed hitters who have struggled to hit in the majors so far, but are very well-regarded for their speed and defense nonetheless.

Of the two, Siani has the edge in terms of big league experience. After brief stints in the majors with the Reds and Cardinals in 2022 and ’23, Siani enjoyed his first extended taste of big league action last year when he appeared in 124 games for St. Louis and stepped up to the plate 334 times. He hit a paltry .228/.285/.285 in that time, good for a 64 wRC+ that was 36% worse than the league average hitter and the eighth-lowest slash line among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances. With that being said, Siani went an excellent 20-for-23 on the basepaths while posting +16 Outs Above Average, a 99th percentile figure that placed him behind only Nationals defensive standout Jacob Young among outfielders.

Unfortunately, there’s little in Siani’s profile that suggests a significantly higher offensive ceiling than he demonstrated in 2024. His actual batting average and slugging percentage both outstripped his expected numbers in those categories by more than 20 points last year, and his .322 BABIP, while not necessarily unsustainable due to his excellent speed, is already at the higher end of the expected range for a regular player. That limited offensive ceiling could open the door for Scott, a consensus top-100 prospect entering last season who has previously shown flashes of offensive potential in the minor leagues. Scott’s .179/.219/.283 (40 wRC+) slash line in 53 games for the Cardinals last year was actually worse than that of Siani, though his peripheral and expected numbers suggest the pair’s underlying performance was roughly the same.

Most notably, Scott flashed more power potential than Siani with a 5.7% barrel rate during his time in the majors last year that more than doubled Siani’s 2.3% figure. Scott also had 35 hard-hit batted balls to Siani’s 43 despite being afforded less than half of the playing time. All of that, as well as Scott’s excellent .323/.373/.450 slash line at the Double-A level in 2023, suggests that Scott has a higher offensive ceiling than Siani and could be a more impactful all-around player if given the opportunity. Scott is also a potential game changer on the basepaths, having stolen an unbelievable 94 bases between High-A and Double-A in 2023 and having followed that up with 35 steals between Triple-A and the majors last year.

Scott grades out extremely well in center field on scouting reports and posted solid (+3 OAA) numbers in defensive metrics with relatively minimal playing time last year, but he would need improve those numbers substantially to offer the sort of league-leading defense Siani has shown himself to be capable of. What’s more, Scott’s bat took a concerning step backwards even at Triple-A last year, when he slashed just .210/.294/.303 in 82 games. That lackluster showing could suggest that Scott simply isn’t ready for another jump to the major leagues, particularly given that the gap between MLB and Triple-A is even bigger than that between the Triple- and Double-A levels.

Of course, another viable option would be simply placing Nootbaar in center field. An above-average big league hitter in each of his four MLB seasons so far, Nootbaar is obviously the most talented hitter of the bunch but will be in the lineup in some capacity regardless of whether he’s playing center field or not. Playing Nootbaar in center, then, would actually open up playing time for Gorman. The club’s first-rounder back in 2018, Gorman was a league average bat during his rookie season in 2022 before taking a big step forward the following year, slashing .236/.328/.478 with 27 homers and a 118 wRC+ in 119 games that year. Unfortunately, things fell apart for Gorman last year as he struck out at a worrisome 37.9% clip and watched his slash line plummet to a lackluster .203/.271/.400 (87 wRC+).

Even last year’s subpar offensive output is likely better than what can be expected from either Siani or Scott this year, but to get Gorman’s bat into the lineup the Cards would have to sacrifice on defense. Nootbaar has logged 109 games in center field over the course of his career, with a rather pedestrian +1 OAA during that relatively sporadic playing time. While it’s possible that Nootbaar’s numbers could tick up with more regular playing time at the position, it’s clear he lacks the impactful defense ability of Siani or Scott. The club’s baserunning would suffer if Gorman replaced Siani or Scott in the lineup as well, as Gorman has never swiped more than seven bags in a season and has been a net negative on the basepaths throughout his career according to FanGraphs’ BsR metric.

How should the Cardinals handle their center field conundrum? Should they stick with Siani’s elite glove despite his lackluster offense? Pass the baton to Scott despite questions about his offensive ceiling thanks to his elite speed and baserunning abilities? Or should they slide Nootbaar over to center despite pedestrian defense in order to maximize their lineup’s potential by making room for Gorman? Have your say in the poll below:

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