The St. Louis Cardinals don’t look like a playoff team right now, although they have won three games in a row as of writing. No matter what happens down the stretch, there is still something to play for even if the Cardinals don’t make the playoffs.
The most important thing about the next few weeks is evaluation. St. Louis is seemingly heading towards a rebuild. These next few weeks will play a big role in deciding who stays and goes. September 1st will be an interesting day as well for clubs because rosters expand. Teams will be able to go from 26 players on their rosters, to 28 players.
This is a time of the year in which you see a lot of minor league transactions in general, but you likely will see St. Louis give some guys looks to see if anyone could impact the 2026 club, or maybe as a showcase for potential offseason trades.
There’s already a little bit of chatter out there about who it would make sense for the Cardinals to bring up. One name that was thrown out there was left-handed reliever Oddanier Mosqueda by FanSided’s Thomas Gauvain.
“This is probably a name that most Cardinals fans aren’t familiar with,” Gauvain said. “The Cardinals selected Mosqueda in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft last winter. Mosqueda, 26, was a member of the New York Yankees Triple-A roster, but he was swiped by the Cardinals back in December.
“Mosqueda pitched only three innings in spring training before being sent to minor league camp. He struck out three batters, allowed five hits, and gave up one earned run in his brief stint at Jupiter…Mosqueda would require an addition to the 40-man roster, but he’s once again eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this winter. If the Cardinals want to see if he’s worth an add in the winter, they may as well jumpstart that decision and give him some run down the stretch. Manager Oliver Marmol may be grateful to have another lefty in the pen to use in games.”
Mosqueda is someone St. Louis clearly had interest in, as shown through the Rule 5 Draft. This season, he has a 4.21 ERA in 48 appearances with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. What’s the harm in adding much-needed lefty relief depth? At this point, this is a great suggestion by Gauvain.