As Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings progress, some minor league players could be on the move on Wednesday when the Rule 5 draft commences.
This year’s Rule 5 draft will begin at 1 p.m. ºüÀêÊÓƵ time in Nashville, Tennesse, the site of the meetings.
In November, the Cardinals added righties Adam Kloffenstein and Sem Robberse (both acquired at the trade deadline in a deal with the Blue Jays) and catcher Pedro Pages to their 40-man roster to protect the three from the Rule 5 draft.
Players selected in the Rule 5 draft are added to the selecting team’s 26-man roster. The selecting team must pay $100,000 to the club they select a player from. The chosen player must be placed on outright waivers to be removed from the selecting club’s 26-man roster and must be offered back to his former team for $50,000 if he clears waivers.
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Here’s a look at some of the prospects the Cardinals left unprotected ahead of Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft:
RHP Ian Bedell
The Cardinals’ fourth-round pick in the abbreviated 2020 MLB draft, Bedell came into the year with a total of 8 1/3 professional innings under his belt due to Tommy John surgery in 2021 and setbacks in 2022. However, the past season provided better injury luck for Bedell. The 24-year-old logged 96 innings and posted a 2.44 ERA in 27 games (19 starts) for Class High-A Peoria. With a newly developed slider in his arsenal, Bedell struck out 106 batters for a 9.94 K/9 rate and posted a 1.15 WHIP en route to being named Midwest League pitcher of the year and recognition as a Midwest League All-Star. Bedell — a Mizzou product and a Cardinals fan growing up — has yet to pitch above the High-A level.
RHP Inohan Paniagua
A shoulder injury limited Paniagua to 48 innings in Class High-A. He ended the regular season with a 4.13 ERA and 47 strikeouts before he got a chance to make up for innings during the Arizona Fall League. The 23-year-old made six appearances (one start) and logged 16 2/3 innings in the AFL. He struck out 17 batters, walked six, and saw six of the 13 hits he surrendered go for home runs. A breakout performer in 2022 while in Class Low-A, Paniagua owns a 3.87 ERA in 82 career minor league games. He was left unprotected last December after he had a 2.81 ERA and 145 strikeouts in 137 2/3 innings — all career-bests. Paniagua hasn’t pitched above Class High-A.
1B/OF L.J. Jones IV
After becoming the Cardinals fifth-round in 2020, Jones has produced a .245 average, a .306 on-base percentage, and a .359 slugging percentage in 261 career games with ºüÀêÊÓƵ’s farm system. Coming off a 2022 season during which he hit 33 doubles while in High-A —the second most within the Cardinals system — Jones elected to remain in Cardinals camp this past spring instead of playing for Team Panama in the World Baseball Classic and worked with Cardinals minor league hitting coordinator Russ Steinhorn during spring training to make mechanical adjustments to his swing. The Long Beach State product spent his whole season in Class AA Springfield where he played in 73 games, batted .223, hit 11 doubles, eight homers, and drove in 42 RBIs to go with a .636 OPS. Jones, 24, has yet to play above Class AA.
RHP Logan Sawyer
Signed out of independent baseball last winter, Sawyer appeared in 44 games across Class AA and Class AAA, posting a 5.81 ERA and logging 52 2/3 innings over those opportunities. The righty pitched in 38 games for Double-A Springfield and struck out 27.4% of the batters he faced. Twenty-three of his 59 strikeouts in Double-A came over 19 1/3 innings spread across the start of July through Aug. 25. That stretch included a 2.33 ERA and a .194 batting average allowed to opposing hitters. Sawyer, 30, received a promotion to Class AAA Memphis during the final weekend of August. In his first sample at the level, Sawyer allowed six runs, walked six batters, and struck out two in 4 1/3 innings.
INF Nick Dunn
Dunn led all qualified Cardinals prospects in average and was 12th in the minors with a .319 mark in 124 games between Class AA and Class AAA. He complemented that with a .413 on-base percentage, an .855 OPS, and 73 walks while striking out 57 times. A June that included a .372/.450/.521 slash line with Springfield led Dunn to Cardinals organizational player of the month honors and preceded a late-July promotion to Memphis. The 26-year-old and former fifth-round pick from the 2018 draft concluded his most successful minor league campaign with a .302 average and .404 on-base percentage in 51 games for Memphis. Dunn was unprotected from last winter’s Rule 5 draft but went unselected.
OF Matt Koperniak
Signed in 2020 as an undrafted free agent from a Division III school, Koperniak’s 2023 began in the World Baseball Classic as a member of Team Great Britain. He played 96 of his 129 games during the regular season with Class AAA and slashed .275/.353/.431 with 12 doubles, 14 home runs, and 67 RBIs while seeing time in left, center, and right field for the Redbirds. Since making his professional debut in 2021, the 25-year-old, left-handed swinging outfielder owns a .293 batting average, a .375 on-base percentage, and a .437 slugging percentage in 332 career games within the Cardinals’ system. He’s played the majority of his defensive innings in left field and owns a .988 fielding percentage at that position.
1B/DH Chandler Redmond
The left-handed swinging first baseman set career-highs in games played (132), home runs (31), and RBIs (92) after he spent the entire season as Springfield’s first baseman. Redmond led the Texas League in homers and was second behind Luken Baker in homers and in RBIs for the Cardinals' minor league lead. The 26-year-old and former 32nd-round pick from the 2019 draft had a 30.4% strikeout rate — the fifth-highest by a Cardinals prospect — and had a 14.7% walk rate. After spending part of his previous offseason working alongside Diamondback’s Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker, Redmond’s .992 fielding percentage at first base was the best he’s produced in a full season.
Other Cardinals minor leaguers left unprotected ahead of Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft include pitchers Logan Gragg, Connor Lunn, Brandon Komar, Hancel Rincon, Dionys Rodriguez, Benjamin Arias, Jose Davila, Gerado Salas, Darlin Saladin, Alexander Beltre, Dalton Roach, Nick Trogrlic-Iverson, Ryan Shreve, Gustavo J. Rodriguez, Jack Ralston, Roy Garcia, Leonardo Taveras, Nathanael Heredia, Augusto Calderon and Angel Cuenca, catchers Aaron Antonini, Nick Raposo, Justin Guerrero, and Maikel Hernandez, infielders Ramon Mendoza, Jacob Buchberger, and Lizandro Espinoza, and outfielders Darlin Moquete, Tyler Reichenborn, Jose Cordoba, and Felix Taveras.