St. Louis Cardinals Top 41 Prospects

Watching an endless parade of Wetherholt swings feels like efficient workflow, but it’s also excising a healthy majority of the pitches he sees from the process. The young man is a connoisseur of not swinging. His head stays still and his hands stay back even when his hips are bailing out toward the pull side, allowing him to track spin beautifully. Wetherholt can really stay on soft stuff low and away from him, but he’ll whiff on well-located fastballs up and in. The fastball vulnerability is pretty common for lefties in that location, but his ability to cover low and away is rare, and he deserves more credit for that unique ability than he does demerits for the flaw. This is a special hit tool, and making lots of good contact with very good swing decisions has been the bedrock of power overproduction for many prospects in the past. With that in mind, the top rung of Wetherholt’s exit velocities are presently below the big league average, and he’s a compact and tightly-wound 5-foot-10 athlete who does not offer much projection. He certainly can pull fastballs, but his game is geared more around spraying line drives all over the yard than seeking opportunities to turn it loose, although the feel for those moments can come with time. Wetherholt will certainly have the runway.

Normally, a player’s offense gets written about before his defense simply because hitting is cooler and more fun, but the central debate of which side of second base Wetherholt ends up on seems destined to be adjudicated by his offensive maturity. He’s getting on base more often than not through June, and certainly doesn’t belong in Springfield anymore. But the Cardinals’ unsettled second base situation and presence in the playoff race will make the urge to bring him to St. Louis pretty strong through the end of 2025, let alone next spring. Wetherholt is less rangy and springy than the average major league shortstop, and sticking there would demand a lot of his transfers and play clock to be on point to make up the difference. Or he could simply be a solid average second baseman next to Masyn Winn for the foreseeable future and hit his way to impact. The latter route seems better for everyone.

Mathews looked awesome against big leaguers this spring, maintaining the strength, velocity and stuff gains that had vaulted a bland back-end starter profile into what was in our estimation the best left-handed starting pitching prospect in the game. But shoulder soreness shut him down three starts into 2025, and even after a month on the IL, a few rehab starts, and an eventual return to Triple-A Memphis, Mathews’ fastball command remains completely AWOL. He’s walked 18 hitters in 21.2 International League innings since returning.

In truth, the shotgun spray nature of his fastball location resembles Mathews’ four starts with Memphis at the end of last season. But at that point, it was the third level jump of an awesome debut season, and Mathews peppering heaters under the armpits of big league righties the following spring put such concerns to bed. In the same way, Mathews’ struggles with command as his release point varies coming off an injury could prove to be another blip. His slider and changeup are still performing incredibly well even with his arm slot variance, with miss rates in the 45% range per Synergy Sports. But in terms of projecting Mathews to have plus command that buttresses front-end-of-the-rotation potential, this has become a meaningful outage.

Blended with the rumble of thunder along the storm-freckled east coast of Florida have been the concussive sounds of Rainiel Rodriguez hitting a baseball. The dynamic Dominican catcher stomped onto the shores of the FCL this year and, for the second straight season, made hitting look so easy that the Cardinals were forced to promote him to Low-A Palm Beach after just a month of play. In just 61 career games before Rodriguez was promoted to the Low-A roster in early June, he had a 1.200 OPS, more walks than strikeouts, 17 homers, and 38 extra base hits. He joins the handful of other exceptionally talented 2024 international amateur signees who have reached full season ball, and Rodriguez, whose spikes are painted like the body of a hot rod, is one of the most fun-to-watch players in the minors. He does at least a little bit of everything well, and some stuff (like hitting for power and playing good defense) he does a lot of. This guy can hit, has power, and is very likely to be a good defensive catcher if he can polish his framing.

A stocky prodigy, Rodriguez waits until the ball travels deep in the hitting zone before deciding whether to unload. His compact build helps facilitate this, and ensures that he can snatch pitches to his pull side even when he waits an extra beat to swing. He has power to all fields and it manifests in games, as Rodriguez has impressive barrel feel and plate coverage even though he swings with big effort. We don’t know a ton yet about the chase and plate discipline aspect of Rodriguez’s skill set. Rookie pitching didn’t challenge him, and his Low-A sample is still really small. That’s a big variable that we’ll all get to learn more about throughout the second half. Pending a revelation of his patience, Rainiel looks like he’s going to have a potent contact and power blend for a catcher. He is very muscular and physically mature for his age, his physique projects to resemble that of Shea Langeliers, Hunter Goodman, Francisco Alvarez — the kind of bulky-but-athletic type of catcher for which there is plenty of successful precedent. He might not grow into much more raw power, but he already has plenty.

Rodriguez’s best defensive trait right now is his agile ball-blocking, which he makes look easy. In the event he gives up a long rebound, he’s quick out of his crouch to prevent an advance, and this extends to his throwing. Rodriguez’s throwing footwork needs polish, but he has an average raw arm that should play up because of his exchange and accuracy. In addition to just being a very talented baseball player, Rodriguez is also heady, poised, and competitive. He carries himself like an older lad who belongs in the mid-minors with other adults, and one can foresee him growing into the sort of person who leads your clubhouse. Teenage catching prospect caveats apply here but, man, this is an exciting player who looks like a future impact regular.

Eric referred to Crooks’ pitch blocking as a “flesh wall” in his preseason writeup, a description that can only be expanded upon, not improved. While it’s already a canard that one-knee stances have a deleterious effect on blocking, Crooks really demonstrates it when he splays out wide, unlocking the full width of his massive torso. He’s got a big body that he knows how to use. He throws out of a longer arm action, with the accuracy and power that comes from setting his leg base more than canceling out the sacrifice in release speed.

These superlative defensive tools have driven a starting catcher projection despite more average skills on the offensive side, though they’ve been buried beneath consistently above-average results with the bat. More than a few championships have been won with, or rather because of, a catcher who bats ninth. That potential is still present for Crooks, but his offensive profile has started taking on water in Triple-A in a way that he ideally would have staved off until he faced major league pitching. Crooks has an elaborate negative move, uncommonly big for someone of his size and with his swing style. He’s used it to impressively access his average raw power and is on pace to easily set a new single-season career high in home runs. But he’s also threatening a 30% strikeout rate at Memphis, as his in-zone whiffs and chases have spiked this year, especially against fastballs above the zone. It’s easy to imagine Crooks’ leg kick getting cut down to enable some better swing decisions, but he’ll likely still have a below-average hit tool when that smoke clears.

A shortlist contender for the best defensive catcher in the minors can’t be moved off a starter trajectory by one poor half-season of offense in Triple-A, but 2025 has been a preview of some of Crooks’ limitations.

Hence rode his plus secondaries, including a particularly wondrous changeup, to a dominant showing at Double-A last year, striking out 109 and walking just 26 in 79.2 innings despite not turning 22 until August. Those innings were spread out over 20 outings, however, and getting answers to the existential questions surrounding the slender right-hander’s profile – Will his plus fastball velo return? Can he display starter stamina? — has been stymied by a strained rib cage that sidelined him for the first several weeks of the season.

Hence slipped on our Top 100 update coming out of spring due to the injury; his velocity was also still down from his previous highs, and his delivery was looking less athletic and repeatable. He’s returned to action with less trunk tilt than he was showing in spring, but he’s also still seemingly working out the timing of his more conservative stride. It looks like it should be more repeatable long-term, but his rehab appearances found Hence falling into some uncharacteristic command outages and he was still sitting 94 mph.

Even if the upper-90s velo doesn’t return, Hence fastball ran a playable 20% in-zone whiff rate last year. And the secondaries are just too good with too many strikes to rush toward a reliever projection in this evaluator’s opinion. But this is Hence’s first option year and he figures to finish it well shy of 100 innings, so that could easily be how he debuts and provides instant impact.

The stocky, switch-hitting Panamanian backstop doesn’t turn 22 until next February and his chase rate, in-zone whiffs, 90th-percentile exit velocity and hard-hit rates are all around the big league average or a little better against Double-A pitching. That buttresses the enthusiasm Bernal’s flirtation with a .900 OPS at Springfield would already be generating as someone who is a safe bet to stick at catcher. With quieter pre-pitch movements and a more intentional effort to stay closed through his stride, Bernal reached the 11 home run total he managed in 2024 by his 44th game of 2025. Listed at six-feet and 245 pounds with tree trunks for legs, Bernal is strong as an ox, but his poor performance in his few looks against premium velocity impugn his bat speed. Hitting enough to be a primary option at catcher looks like a more reasonable goal than being a middle-of-the-order presence.

Behind the plate, it’s fair to wonder how well Bernal’s surprising mobility will age, and loading his glove from the dirt sacrifices framing in the upper quadrants that might undergo calibration at higher levels. But his leg strength is evident in the stable base he gives himself to make strong and accurate throws from his crouch, and he’s running a caught stealing rate north of 30% for the second straight year. This is trending toward a starting catcher profile, albeit perhaps one without an above-average offensive tool.

Padilla is a very exciting switch-hitting power projection prospect who might end up with big juice from both sides of the plate. Padilla is already quite strong, but the cement of his physicality isn’t anywhere near dry, nor are his swings actualized for power. It is within the realm of possibility that Padilla ends up being built like Ketel Marte; this is a strong young lad with proto Popeye forearms. Padilla has the arm for shortstop, but his range and hands are fringy. It’s easier to project on his hands than his range, especially when it also seems likely that Padilla will end up being big at peak. Padilla hasn’t played anywhere but shortstop yet, so it’s hard to have clarity around whether second or third base is a better look for him, though the arm strength piece points to third base. Padilla hits a lot of grounders and low line drives right now, but that’s not unusual for a switch-hitter this age. At this stage, it’s exciting that Padilla’s feel for contact from both sides of the plate is quite good. This is a magmatic prospect with big upside as a balanced contact/power threat on the middle infield. Of course, if he ends up at third base and the power never actualizes in games, we’re looking at more of a second-division regular.

Lin was a notable Taiwanese college pitcher who gained stateside exposure via the Northwoods and MLB Draft Leagues before he signed with the Cardinals for $500,000 in 2023. He pitched a little bit on the Jupiter complex and in A-ball that year, and was very walk-prone. Sent back to Low-A Palm Beach in 2024, Lin’s stuff overwhelmed hitters, and he had a great season — 116 innings, 9.54 K/9, 2.79 BB/9, 2.79 ERA — despite still being mechanically inconsistent. His fastball touched 100 mph several times throughout the season and sat 94-97 for most of the year, and though Lin’s velocity tapered a little bit as time went on, he was still parked in the 93-96 mph range in August. Lin missed the first month of 2025 with a forearm strain but returned in early May and was assigned to High-A Peoria for the first time. His strike-throwing has backed up quite a bit, especially in the weeks leading up to this publication, which indicates Lin is still more of a high-upside project than an ascendant star.

Lin’s skyscraping, 6-foot-7 frame is still nowhere near filled out, and he remains projectable even at age 23. Added strength doesn’t need to yield any more velocity, but stamina and body control would be nice. We’re still bullish on Lin’s eventual ability to do that even though he’s been walk prone again this year. Pitchers this size who move with this kind of mechanical fluidity are rare and often blossom late. Lin’s changeup projects to be his best secondary pitch. It tends to live in the upper 80s, and while Lin’s feel for locating it to his arm side is precocious, his ability to create bat-missing movement on each one is not. His best ones are plus, and the pitch projects to mature there. The direction of Lin’s slider also varies, and that pitch has low-end raw spin, regularly registering under 2,000 rpm. Yes, Lin is 23 and has barely pitched about Low-A, but he’s now proven he can hold above-average velocity across a lot of innings, and he performed despite being fairly raw. He has until the end of next season before the Cardinals have to put him on the 40-man, which is plenty of time for him to stretch out even more, polish his control, and climb a level per year so that he’s comfortably in position for an add after 2026 and then a debut in the mid-2027 through early 2028 window. This is a high-ceiling pitching prospect who we think has a shot to be a mid-rotation starter down the line.

McGreevy is a six-pitch surgeon who tends to attack east/west with mostly below-average stuff. Drafted as a young-for-the-class, strike-throwing college starter, McGreevy has worked 150 innings each of the last two years at (mostly) Triple-A Memphis, where he has a 4.24 ERA across 284 career innings. He debuted in St. Louis with a spot start the day of the 2024 trade deadline, and as of this update is a handful of innings away from graduating from rookie status.

McGreevy’s best pitch is his 83-86 mph slider, which has above-average 2-to-8 movement. His fastball has bat-missing ability when he’s locating it to the very top of the zone, but when McGreevy’s locations drift to his arm side, he becomes easier to hit, and his fastball is very vulnerable in the zone. Even though McGreevy tends to execute his other pitches to their optimal locations, none of them is especially nasty. He’s going to get a ton of groundballs (McGreevy fields his position very well) and eat innings, and he’s been among the most durable and consistent minor league starters for the last three years. Though his stuff is a little light to call McGreevy a potential impact starter, he could outproduce this grade from a WAR standpoint through sheer volume of innings.

Hansen’s changeup has taken a bit of a leap, and his projection has shifted from “fifth or sixth starter type with slider command” to “high-floored backend starter who’ll work efficiently and eat innings.” Hansen’s fastball has nearly bottom-of-the-scale velo for a big league pitcher, but his command to the top of the zone, where his backspinning heater plays best, allows it to miss some bats anyway. His low-80s slider has tight, late movement, and he can land it or a slow curveball for strikes. That’s true of Hansen’s entire repertoire; he’s throwing everything for strikes 65% of the time or more. He’s running a career-worst walk rate right now (still only 8.7%), but he looks like a plus command guy under the hood, which has basically been true for Hansen’s entire time as a prospect. The same deceptive late arm stroke that helps Hansen hide his fastball is aiding his improved changeup, and its tailing action gives him something that finishes on the arm-side half of the plate. This is a fairly complete pitchability lefty poised to debut next season.

Roby came to St. Louis alongside Thomas Saggese in exchange for Jordan Montgomery’s memorable second half run with the Rangers in 2023, so even the right-hander’s regular flashes of mid-rotation stuff haven’t been able to stir much regret in Arlington. After back-to-back campaigns abridged by shoulder troubles, Roby’s 2025 has found him clearing 60 innings in a season for the first time since joining the Cardinals organization. It’s good timing, too, since Roby was protected from the Rule 5 this winter and his options clock – along with his presently plus secondaries – would be ample motivation to pursue an impact relief future if injuries continue to impede his path to the rotation.

Despite the injury history, Roby’s fastball is back to sitting 94-97 mph with consistency this year, and he earned a promotion after carving at Double-A Springfield to the tune of a sub-1.00 WHIP and 57 strikeouts to 11 walks in 47 innings. But the heater has also been the primary source of damage for Roby since his promotion, and its downhill plane means his dip to sub-40% fastball usage is likely here to stay. His secondaries look capable of carrying the weight, since they already do the work of suppressing Roby’s walks by consistently running chase rates over 30%. Roby combines a high-80s gyro slider with a low-80s curve that has massive drop; the curve plays so well to lefties that he’s mostly shelved his changeup in Triple-A, since it has good velo separation but inconsistent location. Both breaking balls tunnel well off Roby’s heater to form three planes and velocity bands for which hitters must account.

This all still looks like the ingredients of a mid-rotation starter, but that role carries a workload expectation that Roby has yet to meet.

A unique, low-slot slingin’ star at Oregon State, Hjerpe has had a fair bit of elbow trouble in pro ball, culminating in a Tommy John in the spring of 2025, the more serious of two surgeries he’s had in the last three seasons. It adds an element of risk to a profile that has otherwise been incredibly stable for a low-slot pitcher. Usually low-slot guys need to prove, over and over again, that they are not some smoke-and-mirrors trickster and have real stuff.

Hjerpe has been successful in the spotlight for long enough that such a stigma doesn’t apply to him. Injuries have limited how deep Hjerpe has pitched into games, as well as his career-long output (he has fewer than 100 career innings), but in mostly three- and four-inning bursts, he’s been dominant and struck out 35.2% of hitters last year before he was shut down. Submarine angle allows Hjerpe’s heater to miss bats at a 30% clip even though he sits 89-91. His upper-70s slider has frisbee shape because of his slot and plus length. An uphill cutter and changeup round out the four-pitch mix of a good no. 4/5 starter.

The 2025 season is Hjerpe’s 40-man platform year, and the timing of his TJ means he’ll be vulnerable if left unprotected in this offseason’s Rule 5 Draft because he’ll be stashable on the IL early in 2026. Hjerpe is also polished enough that it’s very feasible he’ll make a roster in a relief capacity, and such a role would allow his workload to be manicured coming off the surgery. Hjerpe could be a good team’s fourth starter, he just needs to get healthy and show that he can handle the workload. His chance to do so in a timely manner that would allow him to start his big league career in the rotation is dwindling.

As a crossfire left-hander with a sweepy slider and inconsistent changeup command out of a longer arm action, it used to be safe to call this former eighth-round pick a funky specialist reliever and take an early lunch with the time saved. But this update finds Henderson carving up Double-A hitters out of the rotation and missing a ton of bats with a heater that’s ticked up into the 92-95 mph range. Throwing harder always helps, as pitchers are fond of saying. But Henderson has also shortened his stride, trading in pedestrian extension to lean further into his crossfire delivery, and he’s now getting above-average in-zone whiffs on his heater. A more defined third pitch would really tie the starter projection together, but touching 96 mph with playable fastball shape gives Henderson room for leverage relief work in the future while still having room to grow.

Graceffo had a velo spike coming out of Villanova, but his health, performance, and ability to miss bats all varied as he climbed the minors. He was put on the Cardinals’ 40-man after the 2023 season and briefly debuted in 2024. He began 2025 as a swingman, and was back and forth from Memphis to St. Louis in April and May before Graceffo was (seemingly) permanently moved to a single-inning relief role in June. His velocity has been steadily climbing again since that shift. His fastball velo is up two ticks compared to his average as a starter, and he touched 100 in an outing shortly before this update.

Graceffo’s delivery begins on the back of the mound as he builds momentum even before he actually steps on the rubber to stride home. His fastball and curveball movement are near mirror images of one another, each with an average of 15 inches of vertical movement in either direction, and those two pitches are supplemented by an upper-80s cutter/slider that acts as a bridge. A rare changeup might become extinct now that Graceffo is in the ‘pen. If this velo spike holds and he’s sitting 97 in perpetuity, Graceffo stands a chance to be a higher-leverage arm.

It’s been four years since this house of a man was plucked out of suburban Boston for a $2.25 million bonus. A raw power project who used to be a two-way player and a cold weather kid to boot, Baez needed a long runway to show progress, but things appear to be clicking after years of injuries and excessive whiffs. Baez’s stiff hips drive some of our larger hit tool skepticism, but he looks meaningfully more fluid out of his new upright stance. He has cut his in-zone whiffs such that they’re within shouting distance of league average, and he’s newly able to shut down his swing with two strikes. Relatedly, Baez is getting to his double-plus raw juice like never before; he’s one off his career-high of 11 home runs already and is producing 90th-percentile exit velocities north of 106 mph as a 22-year-old.

As good as Baez’s swing decisions have suddenly become, his improvements have made it more likely he reaches his power-over-hit potential more than they’ve altered his profile. His arms and swing path are long, and his best contact comes out and away from him; a passive approach where he waits out pitches in his crush zone feels like his future.

Despite his massive frame, Baez still moonlights in center field a little, but he’s corner-bound based on his size alone, with ball-tracking that still needs polish. A former high school pitcher who touched the upper 90s, Baez has more than enough arm for right field, but he’s likely to trend toward below-average range as he continues to fill out. This looks like a high-order platoon bat at present, with enough juice to be a corner regular if Baez keeps finding ways to get to his power.

The lanky Dutchman was navigating the line between no. 5 starter and multi-inning reliever before undergoing Tommy John surgery four starts into his 2025 season. Robberse’s high release point helps his sweeper and changeup generate above-average swing-and-miss, but they’re also highly necessary weapons to protect a quite vulnerable low-90s heater. His early season command troubles, if not directly attributable to his injury, aren’t really worth parsing until he returns from it. That said, he now has 134.1 innings at the Triple-A level spread across parts of three different seasons and has allowed 21 homers during them, running up a 4.96 ERA. If there’s impact to be had here, it likely comes in whatever role allows Robberse to throw the least number of fastballs. In part due to the TJ, we think that’ll probably be in long relief.

Saggese is an undersized overachiever who won the 2023 Texas League MVP split across two orgs. He started that year with the Rangers’ Double-A squad, slashing .313/.379/.512, before he was dealt to the Cardinals as part of the return for Jordan Montgomery. The Cardinals have tried to shift Saggese up the defensive spectrum, and he’s played more shortstop for them than he ever did for the Rangers. He actually looks pretty good there despite lacking the high-end physical ability typically associated with that position (like arm strength) because his exchange is so clean and quick. He makes his fair share of plays look tougher than they need to be, but he does find a way to make the play most of the time. With Masyn Winn around, obviously Saggese (pronounced suh-Jay-see) is more likely to rove around the infield than play short when the Cards are fully healthy (he’s played a mix of second, third and short in the majors so far), but in a vacuum, he is a viable shortstop.

The shortstop piece is key here because, while he has admirable traits as a hitter, his overall output is insufficient for an everyday second or third base role. As a smaller guy (his arms are big and look like they belong to a different person; everything else about him is undersized), it takes a ton of effort for Saggese to swing hard, and it takes him some time to get his hands to top speed, leaving him late on a lot of fastballs. He’s also rather chase prone, though Saggese has great feel for throwing his hands at softer stuff outside the zone to put it in play, but not with power. Below-average OBP and power output here limit Saggese to a contact-driven utility infield fit.

Rincon seems to have altered his changeup grip this year; that pitch has taken an enormous leap in quality and is now his best offering. For the last couple of years, Rincon has been a steady 130-inning mid-minors stalwart with below-average stuff but starter-quality athleticism and command. Now he has a real weapon that can miss a bat against hitters of either handedness. His fastball shape limits its effectiveness and caps his ceiling as a back-of-the-rotation piece, but all of a sudden Rincon looks like a lock to be added to the Cardinals’ 40-man this offseason and debut as a spot starter next year.

Davila is carrying an ERA over 5.00 at Peoria right now and his peripherals have backed up a tad, but he has a ton of starter ingredients: prototypical size, actualized strength, a balanced and graceful delivery, demonstrated stamina, and the weapons to deal with lefties. Davila turns over a firm, tailing changeup with late action, as well as a softer, low-spin slider that has bat-missing depth as long as it’s located. Davila’s command isn’t razor sharp right now; we’re projecting a lot based on the quality of his delivery. His fastball will also need to be located because, despite it’s velocity, it’s pretty vulnerable to contact. He’ll be on the 40-man fringe this offseason and projects as a fifth starter long-term.

The short-striding, barrel-chested righty made his debut in the Cardinals bullpen this year on the strength of the best slider command of his life, right as Granillo decided to use his low-80s gyro bender more than ever. He can run his fastball up to 96 mph and miss a bat or two at the top of the zone, but his four-seamer has average ride out of a high slot. It’s a vulnerable pitch, and Granillo threw over two-thirds sliders in his initial big league cameo for a reason. The slider plays to lefties, so the command of his firm but diving changeup has clearly become less important. This is a single-inning reliever profile built off one above-average pitch, which gives Granillo a medium-leverage ceiling. Not bad at all for a 14th round pick.

Prior to a 2023 Tommy John, Love had shown a plus breaking ball and thrown strikes across 125.2 innings. He’s shifted into the bullpen upon his return from the TJ and is attempting to make a 40-man case for himself entering the offseason. Though his strikeouts and walks have backed up compared to 2023, Love’s stuff looks the same and sets him up to be a good middle reliever. His slider quality and command are both tremendous, as Love’s feel for dotting his two-planed, mid-80s dagger is very consistent. His fastball feel is less precise, and since Love has shifted to relief, his changeup usage has nearly halved. He’s going to be a breaking ball-heavy reliever and that’s going to be fine; he can alter the shape enough to create more depth when he’s facing a lefty. It may take a better second half for him to earn a spot, but Love is on the fringe of the 2026 40-man mix right now.

Mautz is a low-variance backend starter prospect whose low-end outcome is in the realm of a lefty specialist. He worked 121.2 innings in 2024, and while his ERA bloated above five, his peripherals were fine and have been for the last three years (roughly 25% K and 9% BB). Mautz elevates 91-94 mph fastballs from a low-three-quarters slot and bends in a quality mid-80s slider for strikes and chases. The velo on his slider is way up this year while the rest of his repertoire is roughly the same, suggesting a change in the design of Mautz’s slider has taken place (it’s a little more cutter-y now, but not radically different in terms of shape). He lowers his arm slot when he’s throwing his changeup and sometimes when he’s lobbing his curveball into the zone for strikes, which big league hitters might pick up. A longer arm action prevents us from projecting too heavily on Mautz’s changeup, which is where the lefty reliever outcome creeps into his profile. This is Mautz’s 40-man evaluation year and readers should consider him a likely addition to the roster after the season, but not a lock.