FanPost

Cardinals 40 man crunch?

With FG doing a roster crunch series, staring with the AL, let's look at the Cards' potential roster crunch.

Here's the 40 Man

Carlson

O'Neill

Bader

Nootbaar

Dickerson

Capel

Arenado

Goldschmidt

Edman

Gorman

Donovan

Sosa

Molina

Knizner

Romine

Pujols

Yepez

Herrera

DeJong

Whitley

Walsh

Pacheco

Woodford

VerHagen

Reyes

Matz

Hudson

Flaherty

Naughton

Naile

McFarland

Thompson

Oviedo

Fernandez

Hicks

Cabrera

Helsley

Pallante

Mikolas

Wainwright

After the season, Dickerson, Molina, Romine, Pujols, McFarland, and Wainwright are free agents. That will open 6 spots, leaving the Cards with 34 players on the 40.

The club could non-tender Flaherty, Reyes, and Knizner. I wouldn't expect that though. They also could DFA a few players: Capel, Sosa, Whitley, Naile, and Woodford could be at the end of their Cardinal lines.

The Cards will have 6-10 spots open on the 40. This is good flexibility, and they likely don't have much of a crunch.

Here are the prospects in AAA that are eligible for the R5 draft.

Mendoza

Perez

Lopez

Baker

Pages

Coulter

Williams

Parsons

Bosiokovic

Thomas

DeLuzio

Gomez

In AA, there are 20 eligible players.

Rodriguez

Antonini

Redmond

Dunn

Nunez

Toerner

Davis

Pinder

Lunn

Escobar

Pike

Robles

Roach

YaSenka

Gragg

Roberts

Gonzalez

Ralston

Thompson

Leahy

Other Notable Eligible Players Currently Below AA

Whalen

Lott

D. Rodriguez

N. Heredia

Jhon Torres

Paniagua

Moreno

Guarate

GJ Rodriguez

Moquete

Cruz

Pereira

From AAA, the club may want to protect Connor Thomas and Moises Gomez. Baker, Pages, Bosiokovic, and DeLuzio warrant consideration, but likely fall short.

From AA, Malcom Nunez is definite, and they might consider Lunn, Gragg, and Roberts if he looks good in the 2nd half.

Below AA, Heredia, Paniagua, Moreno, Gustavo J. Rodriguez, and Dionys Rodriguez deserve consideration. I think the Cards will gamble they are too far away.

The Cards only need to protect 3 guys: Connor Thomas, Moises Gomez, and Malcom Nunez. They may protect more, but I doubt they'll go overboard.

With at least 6 spots open and only needing to add 3 guys, the Cardinals are in a good spot related to the R5 roster crunch this year.