Cardinals Urged To Make Extremely Difficult Roster Decision

The St. Louis Cardinals are just days away from likely having to make a difficuly decision.

Masyn Winn is eligible to be activated off the Injured List on April 22nd after being placed on the Injured List due to back spasms. When he ultimately is activated, the Cardinals are going to have to send someone down to the minors and the player who seems like the most obvious option is infielder Thomas Saggese.

He's been red-hot, but he was initially promoted because Nolan Gorman was placed on the Injured List and then he was activated in time to put Winn on the Injured List. Saggese has made it clear that he's a capable big league player, but there are only so many spots to go around.

FanSided's J.T. Buchheit talked about the difficult decision and thinks the Cardinals should send Saggese down to the minors depsite the hot start.

"The Cardinals' looming decision to demote Saggese is probably the right call," Buchheit said. "Saggese will, in all likelihood, return to Memphis because the Cardinals will want him to receive regular playing time instead of just being a bench bat with the big league club. It's understandable why the Cardinals would have this mindset, and their belief that Saggese may still have more potential to unlock at his age is likely a big reason why they will send him packing to Triple-A. One can contrast this with Luken Baker, who, at 28, likely doesn't have another level to his game to discover and would therefore not be developing in any significant way with more plate appearances in the minor leagues.

"That reasoning for keeping Baker with the Cardinals likely also applies to center fielder Michael Siani, who would otherwise be the logical choice to demote while keeping Saggese with the major league squad. Cardinals manager Oli Marmol is also a fan of strong defense, which Siani can provide as a late-game substitution. But fair or not, players who can swing the stick are more valuable than those who can flash the leather, and in recent games, the Cardinals haven't provided enough offense to make Siani's late-game defense worth rostering. So, with that said, why keep Siani over Saggese? Other than the fact that Saggese has time and potential on his side, his position is also working against him."

What should St. Louis do?