2026 projects to be a down year for the St. Louis Cardinals after they traded Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray away this offseason, but Chaim Bloom acquired a slew of intriguing prospects, giving reason to believe that a bright future is ahead. Cardinals fans will get a good look at some of those young players in spring training.
While most of their Opening Day roster is set, there's a chance that if some of these young players and other non-roster invitees play well in spring training, they can find a way to go up north with the big league team when the regular season begins. These five non-roster invitees have the best chance of defying the odds and making the Opening Day roster.
2B JJ Wetherholt
JJ Wetherholt is the non-roster invitee Cardinals fans are most excited about. Despite being selected in the first-round of the 2024 MLB Draft, the 23-year-old already has a golden opportunity to make the Cardinals' Opening Day roster. In fact, he's probably the favorite to start at second base after the Donovan trade.
Wetherholt has done nothing but rake since being drafted. He slashed .306/.421/.510 with 17 home runs, 59 RBI and 23 stolen bases last season, and he was even better when he earned a promotion from Double-A to Triple-A, as his .978 OPS in 47 games at the higher level would indicate.
Wetherholt has star potential, and has a clear path to consistent playing time right away if he has a good spring. Even if he struggles, there's a chance he'll still be the Cardinals' Opening Day second baseman - that's how talented he is and how lackluster the other options are on the Cards' roster. This is a huge spring for one of the best prospects in the sport.
LHP Quinn Mathews
Admittedly, Quinn Mathews' path to the Opening Day roster is nowhere near as clear as Wetherholt's. Despite being one of the Cardinals' top prospects, Mathews is coming off a down year that saw him walk a whopping 74 batters in 94 Triple-A innings. It's going to be hard for the Cardinals to believe he's MLB ready after struggling with his command to that extent even if he pitches well in spring training.
With that being said, what's holding the Cardinals back from including him in their Opening Day rotation if he looks like he's MLB ready in spring training? This is a rebuilding year for them, and their rotation projects to be one of the league's worst. They can easily make room for Mathews, whether it's from bumping someone like Andre Pallante to the bullpen or running with a six-man rotation.
Mathews would have to pitch very well to earn a spot, but him doing so shouldn't be ruled out as of now.
OF Nelson Velazquez
As of this writing, Lars Nootbaar is expected to begin the season on the Injured List, leaving the Cardinals short-handed in the outfield. Jordan Walker and Victor Scott II figure to have two of the starting outfield spots locked down, but what about the third? Rookie Nathan Church has the inside track to most of the starts in left field, but as a left-handed hitter whose OPS against southpaws was 160 points than his mark against righties, the Cardinals might want a right-handed hitting outfielder to platoon with him.
That's where 27-year-old Nelson Velazquez comes in. Velazquez inked a minor league deal with the Cardinals this offseason and he didn't swing the bat well the last time he was seen in the majors in 2024, but he had a strong year in Triple-A and in Mexico in 2025, and in 2023, showed immense potential at the big league level. In just 53 MLB games that season, Velazquez hit 17 home runs and drove in 34 runs.
Velazquez likely isn't going to hit 17 home runs in a 53-game span again, but it's clear that he has potential and he could easily give the Cardinals some strong play on the short side of a platoon. A strong spring should have him in serious consideration to make the team.
RHP Scott Blewett
The bullpen figures to be a major Achilles heel for the Cardinals this season, and that gives non-roster invitees like Scott Blewett, who signed a minor league deal with the team this offseason, a chance to make his mark. Blewett has 72.2 MLB innings under his belt in parts of four seasons, and while he finished last season with a 5.48 ERA, there are a couple of reasons why the Cardinals should be intrigued.
First, while his season numbers were not good, Blewett did have a 2.25 ERA in his first 14 appearances and 24 innings of work. He pitched really well for the first couple of months to the point where Atlanta Braves fans wanted him to have an increased role at one point in time. Plus, while he had a high ERA, he did not allow a single run in 15 of his outings and limited the damage to one run four times. To sum up, he allowed one run or fewer in 19 of his 28 outings, which, for the last man in a bullpen, isn't so bad.
Second, he can eat innings. Blewett recorded at least four outs in all but eight of his outings, completed at least two innings 12 times and even threw as many as three innings in an appearance. Length, especially when the Cardinals' rotation leaves a lot to be desired, can be very valuable. If he can pitch well this spring, Blewett should be on the Opening Day roster.
LHP Packy Naughton
Packy Naughton faces perhaps the longest odds of anyone on this list because he's made a total of four appearances, all in Triple-A, since the start of the 2024 season. He's missed substantial time due to a pair of elbow injuries, but is healthy now, and competing for an Opening Day roster spot as a non-roster invitee.
If Naughton were to make the team, it'd be because of his ability to get left-handed hitters out. The southpaw has held left-handed hitters to a .198 average and a .549 OPS in his big league career, which spans 37 appearances from parts of 2021 through parts of 2023. The Cardinals lack an situational lefty as of now, with JoJo Romero likely to close games for them and Justin Bruihl not having much of a successful track record.
Bruihl is seen as likelier to make the team over Naughton since he's on the Cardinals' 40-man roster after they acquired him over the offseason, but his 40-man spot shouldn't be safe. If Naughton shows an ability to get left-handers out and Bruihl doesn't, the choice should be pretty clear.
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