St. Louis Cardinals Roster
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St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn is getting the day off on Friday versus the New York Mets on the road. It's a standard rest day for Winn after he started the previous nine games. He's off to a great start in 2024 with a .313/.385/.418 slash line with an .803 OPS, no home runs, three doubles, two triples, six RBI, four stolen bases and nine runs scored in his first 23 games in his first full season as the team's starting shortstop. Despite the strong start, he's barely hitting over .200 in his last nine contests, so the rest day is warranted. The 22-year-old should be back in there on Saturday. Veteran Brandon Crawford is at the 6 and is batting eighth on Friday against Mets right-hander Jose Butto. Crawford will be facing Butto for the first time in his career.
St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas will look to get straightened out when he takes the ball for a road contest against the New York Mets. The 35-year-old was knocked around for nine hits, including three homers, leading to five earned runs allowed in just 4 1/3 innings in a losing effort against the Brewers his last time out. It was the second consecutive outing and third of five on the season in which the veteran has allowed five earned runs in less than five innings this season. The rough outing raised his ERA to 6.49 through five starts, although his 4.05 xFIP, 4.28 SIERA, and solid 6% BB% suggest positive regression is likely moving forward.
St. Louis Cardinals outfield prospect Nathan Church was an 11th-round pick in the 2022 draft. The UC Irvine product has terrific bat-to-ball skills and should continue to showcase both contact and power throughout all levels of the minor leagues. He's also swiped some bags. However, he does have some limitations defensively and could be bound to left field long-term. Nevertheless, Church continued to make a name for himself last week, going 9-for-25 with two homers, eight RBI, six walks, and a stolen base. As he has done for his entire career, Church showed terrific plate discipline, adding just two strikeouts to his ledger over last week's six-game span.
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson is out of the lineup on Wednesday with the team facing left-hander Jordan Montgomery and the Arizona Cardinals. It's no surprise, as Burleson will continue to ride the pine when the Cardinals face a southpaw. With the 25-year-old out and Jordan Walker being optioned to Triple-A Memphis, Brendan Donovan is in left field and hitting leadoff, while rookie Michael Siani gets the nod in center field and will bat ninth. With Walker in the minors for a bit, Burleson's fantasy stock in deeper leagues is going up, as he should play more regularly against right-handers now. The former second-round pick in 2020 out of East Carolina is still searching for his first home run in 2024 while batting .255 (13-for-51) with two RBI and two runs scored.
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras (hand) is back in the team's lineup on Wednesday, serving as the designated hitter and batting second against Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Jordan Montgomery. Ivan Herrera is doing the catching and is hitting fifth. Left-hand soreness caused the Cardinals to lift Contreras from Tuesday's game early, but manager Oliver Marmol said the decision to pull Contreras had more to do with the lopsided score. Still, the 31-year-old veteran's hand issue is something to keep an eye on. It hasn't affected him at the plate so far, as he's currently hitting .292 (19-for-65) with three home runs and eight RBI in 19 games. He's gone hitless in eight career at-bats against Montgomery, but fantasy managers in single-year leagues need to get him back into their lineups.