Cardinals' Thomas Saggese Has Clear Path to Big Leagues

The young utility man would seem to have a path to Opening Day

When looking at this list, Báez's name jumps out. He was electric throughout Spring Training. He played in 10 games with the big league club and slashed .333/.417/.762 with three homers and five RBIs. He was phenomenal and is the club's No. 4 overall prospect right now. He played well enough throughout camp that the idea of him breaking camp with the big league club and helping out in the outfield in left became a topic of conversation, including from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

With Báez not making the team out of camp, one guy this arguably helps is young utility man Thomas Saggese. He has been getting a lot of action in the outfield this spring. Goold noted in a recent column that "no one would be surprised" if Saggese were to get the nod in left field.

"The biggest question here is whether Saggese and [José Fermín] should be listed below in the outfielders because that’s a significant part of how they’ll make the team," Goold wrote when projecting the Opening Day roster. "[Ramón Urías]’ addition at the start of camp gave competition for young infielders [JJ Wetherholt] and [Nolan Gorman], but it was also a direct challenge for the players out to win the utility spot on the bench, namely another right-handed utility fielder Fermin.

"His skillset and contact profile has advocates within the Cardinals’ decision tree, and that could carry the call given he’s also out of options. No one would be surprised if Saggese is the starting left fielder on opening day."

So, with Báez down in the minors, it would seem to make the path to Opening Day a bit lighter for Saggese. There's still work to do over the next few weeks, but he is slashing .333/.455/.444 in camp so far, although that is from a four-game sample size.