Even with Edman contract settled, the Cardinals’ roster remains unsettled. What’s next?

Tommy Edman’s eventful winter reached its near conclusion on Monday, and with that progress, the St. Louis Cardinals now have largely assembled their roster puzzle in the way they see fit, with seemingly only one major action item remaining on their list.

Edman agreed to a two-year contract, avoiding a pending arbitration hearing and taking him through next season and to free agency at the conclusion of 2024. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported the deal is for $16.5 million, amounting to a roughly expected calculation of what Edman likely would have made in arbitration over those two years.

His availability for opening day following offseason wrist surgery is, to date, not publicly in question, though the calendar remains curious. Edman said last week at the team’s annual Winter Warm-Up that he had not yet been able to swing a bat and make contact with a ball outside of light Wiffleballs, though he is progressing through his other training, including throwing, at a normal pace.

With approximately nine weeks remaining on the calendar until opening day at Dodger Stadium, Edman’s expected slow start in spring and delayed usage in spring games will be near the top of situations to monitor when the club opens camp in Florida in three weeks.

Reaching an agreement with Edman and adding Matt Carpenter to the team’s bench on a minor league contract brings the Cardinals to an estimated payroll of approximately $208 million, per FanGraphs, including all players on the 40-man roster and the team’s obligations to the players’ pension plan and other mandatory fund contributions.

That number may fluctuate slightly depending on the specific breakdown of Edman’s salary, and when pared down to only an expected active roster, is roughly $183 million, a modest increase over last season’s total player expenditure.

What those numbers do highlight, however, is the remaining space in the payroll for another outside addition to supplement the bullpen. Trading for Andrew Kittredge from the Tampa Bay Rays gave St. Louis a reliever they believe can handle leverage assignments toward the back end of games, but depth in middle relief remains an open question.

Three relievers, most recently of the Houston Astros – Hector Neris, Ryne Stanek and Chatham’s Phil Maton – remain available on the market and seemingly at the Cardinals’ preferred price point. Ryan Brasier, formerly a Dodger but best known in Boston, would also fall into that category, as would lefty Matt Moore and righty Jakob Junis. Moore is the only southpaw of that group, any of whom would round out a relief core still in need of some more certain bulk.

Bringing Carpenter back into the fold, couched though it was largely in terms of leadership, creates a complete bench group which could potentially open the season in the majors. Iván Herrera is slotted to back up Willson Contreras behind the plate, Dylan Carlson has been advertised as the team’s fourth outfielder (and would start in center should Edman be delayed), and Alec Burleson seemingly remains in the plans despite some redundancies with Carpenter as a left-swinging bench player without a clear plan for defensive usage.

“I could see a scenario where [Burleson and Carpenter] are both on this club,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said Friday. “In Carp’s case, I think he gives us [positional] flexibility, but I think a lot of this roster has internal flexibility as well.

“Ultimately, [Carpenter] should probably show up with multiple gloves, but how we really utilize that will come down to how we’re mixing and matching in general.”

That internal flexibility is the key to the team’s roster construction and centers in many ways around Edman, as has been explored throughout the winter. Before the calendar turns to February, the opening day lineup for the Cardinals would include Masyn Winn at shortstop, Brendan Donovan at second base, Nolan Gorman as the designated hitter, and Edman in center field.

Both Edman and Donovan have the ability to play shortstop behind Winn, though Edman is the superior defender there of the two, and Donovan is unlikely to play there in extended stretches. Gorman is sufficient at both second and third, and the Cardinals evidently still view Carpenter as an option for third as well, despite appearing there for only 16 innings (all with the Yankees in 2022) since leaving St. Louis.

As a result, assuming Edman is healthy and Carpenter performs to hold his roster spot, opening day for the Cardinals could see a lineup without a clear backup middle infielder on the bench, having all four sprinkled around various positions. That internal flexibility has its benefits but can be limiting to a manager in a live game situation.

Both José Fermín and Buddy Kennedy have middle infield experience and hold 40-man spots, though Kennedy has played only second and third base as a professional and the Cardinals are internally leery of Fermín’s throwing ability from shortstop at game speed.

Ultimately, there are few open spots for competition around the Cardinals as they enter spring. The moves over the last week have largely set the roster, and their pending arrival in warm weather will be in exercising in remaining – or getting, in Edman’s case – healthy and fine tuning. Whether what work was done this winter was sufficient will be revealed as the schedule unfolds.