Cardinals add another catcher to 40-man roster. Could one of them be trade bait?

The selections themselves will not occur until the end of baseball’s Winter Meetings on December 6, but Tuesday represented another major signpost in the offseason roadmap with the passing of the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to prevent them from being selected by another organization.

The St. Louis Cardinals made three such moves, selecting the contracts of pitchers Adam Kloffenstein and Sem Robberse and catcher Pedro Pagés.

In corresponding moves, pitchers Packy Naughton and Wilking Rodríguez were outrighted to Triple-A Memphis and pitcher Connor Thomas was designated for assignment. Rodríguez declined the outright assignment, as was his contractual right, and opted for free agency.

Kloffenstein, 23, and Robberse, 22, were both acquired from Toronto this summer in a trade for reliever Jordan Hicks. They were promoted to Triple-A after the deal, where both turned in some encouraging results despite pitching a level up from their prior experience.

Kloffenstein posted a 3.00 ERA and a 1.282 WHIP in 39 innings spread over nine appearances (eight starts), whereas Robberse struck out 44 in 35 ⅓ innings over eight appearances (seven starts). Kloffenstein was eligible for the Rule 5 draft as Blue Jay last winter but not selected; Robberse was first eligible this year.

In protecting both, the Cardinals continue their investment in developing upper level pitching depth while simultaneously demonstrating faith in two of the players acquired in their summer sell off. They join John King and Drew Rom as players traded for at the deadline who now hold 40-man spots.

Pagés, 25, spent the entire 2023 season at Double-A Springfield after briefly reaching Triple-A Memphis in 2022 and playing in that year’s Arizona Fall League. His 16 home runs and .806 OPS for Springfield this year came coupled with standout defensive work; Pagés, who was Rule 5 eligible and not selected last winter, has long been valued for his ability to handle pitchers, receiving several prime spring training assignments to that end.

He becomes the fourth catcher on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, joining Willson Contreras, Andrew Knizner, and Iván Herrera. A native of Venezuela, Pagés was selected by St. Louis with their sixth round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft from Florida Atlantic University.

His addition raises questions about the way the team intends on proceeding behind the plate this winter. Major League Baseball granted the team a fourth option year for Herrera, allowing them to return the duo of Contreras and Knizner and still find room at Memphis for their long-time top catching prospect. Herrera, though, has little to prove or grow at that level, and taking this step to secure Pagés could be indicative of the team’s desire to trade from that spot in their well-documented winter search for pitching.

The Rule 5 draft is designed to prevent players from languishing indefinitely under team control in the minor leagues. Players are eligible for selection either three or four years after first signing with a team, depending on their age at the time.

In a tidy bit of storytelling, Rodríguez was originally acquired by St. Louis in the 2022 Rule 5 draft from the New York Yankees. The Cardinals previously attempted to sign him from the Mexican professional league, but his team there would not grant his release. After being picked, he was slated for a real shot at the Major League bullpen, but was placed on the injured list at the end of spring training.

Despite two attempts to ramp up for in-game action, a balky right shoulder prevented Rodríguez from ever appearing in a game as a Cardinal, though he could still be a candidate to return to the organization on a minor league deal.

Typically, a player selected in the Rule 5 draft must remain on the selecting team’s active big league roster or on the injured list for one season, and then the claiming team receives full, typical control. However, if a player isn’t on the active roster for at least 90 days (as Rodríguez was not), the Rule 5 conditions remain, thus leaving the Cardinals in a bind if they did not have full confidence that he could be a full-time contributor in 2024.

Naughton made the Cardinals out of last spring training as a depth contributor in the bullpen but was injured early, straining the flexor tendon in his left elbow and ultimately undergoing season-ending surgery after just four scoreless appearances. His recovery should allow him to be fully healthy for spring training.

Thomas was added to the roster last winter to protect him from Rule 5 exposure, but he too dealt with injuries as he turned in 17 underwhelming starts for Memphis with a 5.53 ERA. Despite the team’s desperate need for big league innings, he was not recalled as the year wrapped up, suggesting his slipping stature in the organization.

The Cardinals signaled in recent weeks that they were unlikely to be particularly proactive with their Rule 5 protections by their waiver and trade activity. Reliever Riley O’Brien (acquired from Seattle for cash) and infielders Buddy Kennedy and Jared Young (waiver claims from Oakland and the Chicago Cubs, respectively) represent the sorts of organizational depth that a team would seek to protect this time of year.

By reaching outside the organization to pick up those players rather than leaning toward their own, it was clear both that the Cardinals would have minimal roster space for extra protections and that they valued those outside players more highly than those in their own system.