St. Louis Cardinals 2014 Spring Training Roster Matrix

After the final out of the postseason, the St. Louis Cardinals had 23 of the 25 players on the active World Series roster under club control for 2014. It would've been easy for general manager John Mozeliak and his lieutenants to rest on the laurels of a season that saw 97 wins, a division crown, and National League pennant. But the Cardinals front office did just the opposite.

The Cardinals shed a lot of payroll when the contracts for Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook, Edward Mujica, Rafael Furcal and Carlos Beltran expired. After making Carlos Beltran a qualifying offer which he declined, the Cardinals were never serious bidders for the veteran free agent. They also allowed righthanded reliever Edward Mujica to leave via free agency for Boston. The Cardinals traded 2011 World Series legend David Freese and reliever Fernando Salas to the Angels in exchange for Peter Bourjos and outfield prospect Randal Grichuk. Then St. Louis inked shortstop Jhonny Peralta to a four-year deal worth $52 million. After that, the Redbirds agreed to pay veteran second baseman Mark Ellis $5.25 million to be Kolten Wong insurance at the keystone. In addition to the salaries added via trade and free agency, the Cards also owe some of their returning players raises in 2014.

Reductions in Salary

*The Angels agreed to a contract for this salary for the 2014 season.

Increases in Salary

*Another team paid this player's salary in 2013.

In the wake of the Hot Stove roster moves the Cardinals made, the 2014 roster matrix has nearly reached its final opening day form. Competitions in spring training will settle the final bench spot (which appears to be a battle between Shane Robinson, Pete Kozma, and Greg Garcia), the fifth starter spot (which looks like a two-man contest between Joe Kelly and Carlos Martinez with the loser going to the pen), and a bullpen spot or two. Ty Wigginton is dead money on the St. Louis payroll as he competes for a roster spot with Marlins in Jupiter this month. Right now, the roster matrix looks as follows.

With Motte unlikely to be ready for duty at the end of March, the relief corps will be rounded out by two additional pitchers for opening day. The two hurlers who will head north with St. Louis as relievers will likely come from those players currently in big-league camp. The Cardinals' major-league camp includes a combination of players likely to make the 25-man roster (shown in white), competing for a spot on the 25-man (light red), on the 40-man attempting to win a big-league roster spot (blue), and non-roster invitees (yellow and light gray).

Spring Training MLB Camp Roster Matrix

I included the non-roster invitee catchers in light gray because they are in major-league camp for primarily practical reasons. The Cardinals need a lot of catchers to catch pitchers during side sessions, etc. So the minor-league catchers are not in big-league camp to compete for a job, but to help get the pitchers ready for the year.

This is the lay of the roster land in Jupiter as spring training ramps up. The Cardinals will subtract players from this final matrix as they relegate them to minor-league camp. (For example – just this weekend, St. Louis transferred reliever Jordan Swagerty from MLB to minor-league camp.) The Cards' opening day roster will most likely be made up of players from the final roster matrix chart.

Correction: The original "Increases in Salary" chart did not contain Jhonny Peralta. It has been corrected.