5 Cardinals on the 40-man roster who won’t survive the 2024 season

2) Buddy Kennedy won't last long on the Cardinals 40-man roster

Buddy Kennedy is the kind of player who looks like he'll succeed in the minors but struggle in the majors. In his six minor league seasons, he has an impressive .285/.380/.485 slash line, and he even posted an .887 OPS in 101 AAA games split with the Diamondbacks and Athletics AAA squads.

When Kennedy has gotten his chances in the majors, things haven't gone quite as well, as he has slashed .205/.293/.299 with one home run and 13 RBI in 40 games and 123 plate appearances. Small sample size, but not much to love there.

Kennedy was claimed off of waivers by the Athletics in September from the Diamondbacks and didn't even last through the offseason in their organization. He was claimed off of waivers by the Cardinals in October. Kennedy not being able to last with Oakland sort of tells you all you need to know.

He's primarily an infielder, seeing time at first base, second base, and third base in his minor league career. The Cardinals are more than set at all three of those positions with Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman, and Nolan Arenado manning them. He's fine depth, sure, but the Cardinals have a ton of depth as well. With a full 40-man roster it wouldn't be surprising to see Kennedy not last the offseason, let alone the entire 2024 season on St. Louis' 40-man roster.