Projecting the St. Louis Cardinals’ 25-Man Opening Day Roster

Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Starting Rotation (5): Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn, John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Jaime Garcia
Assuming that everyone—particularly Wainwright and Lynn, who have suffered injuries this spring—is healthy on Opening Day, the top four pitchers in the rotation are set in stone. The fifth spot is in question, and the competition still seems to be wide-open between Carlos Martinez, Marco Gonzales, and Jaime Garcia. 
While Gonzales has been the most effective of the bunch this spring, the fact that Garcia has succeeded and stayed healthy thus far may mean that he could end up in the rotation again. Garcia, who has dealt with seemingly endless shoulder injuries over the past few years, has a 3.86 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP over 9.1 innings so far. Notably, he’s been the only one of the three to start in all of his appearances, which may mean that he has a leg up on the younger two pitchers.
In addition, the fact that Garcia is out of options and does not have the high-leverage relief experience that Martinez and Gonzales have makes him a stronger candidate for the rotation. Garcia is a ticking time bomb, and it seems almost inevitable that he’ll go down with another injury at some point, but the Cards might as well get the most that they can out of him while he’s healthy, keeping him as the fifth starter with Martinez and Gonzales on call to replace him whenever necessary.

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