Cardinals Calling Up Top Prospect To Bolster Roster For Rest Of Season

St. Louis just became much more interesting

Scott Neville | Aug 18, 2023

Cardinals Calling Up Top Prospect To Bolster Roster For Rest Of Season /

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St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals' latest move gives fans a reason to be excited for games despite being far out of playoff contention.

Other than die-hard fandom, the Cardinals have not given their audience much of a reason to turn on the TV. The team does have a high-powered offense and an exciting young core, but outside of Jordan Walker, the rest are fairly established.

Now, fans have a few at-bats to look forward to as appointment television.

"Shortstop Masyn Winn has been selected from Triple-A Memphis. He will wear uniform #0," the Cardinals announced.

Winn is not only the top prospect in the Cardinals organization but the No. 32 prospect in the league according to MLB Pipeline.

The 21-year-old slugger is hitting .288 with 40 extra-base hits including 18 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .833 OPS in 105 games for Triple-A Memphis. He's also swiped 17 bases in 19 attempts and provided plus defense.

Tommy Edman has been manning shortstop as of late but he'll likely move back to the outfield to make way for the young star and handle Lars Nootbar's role.

The Athletic's Katie Woo did a perfect breakdown of how Winn can maintain his rookie status for the 2024 season. The Cardinals will do everything they can to not only keep his extra year of team control but also to keep him eligible for National League Rookie of the Year voting next season, which now gives the winning player's organization draft compensation.

"A player is no longer considered to be a rookie if he exceeds more than 130 at-bats in the major leagues (or 50 innings pitched), or if he spends more than 45 days on an active MLB roster during the championship season," Woo wrote.

"However, service time that occurs after rosters expand on Sept. 1 is not counted under the 45-day threshold. Either way, the Cardinals have already passed the point in the season where the 45 days would expire, so Winn’s rookie eligibility will be preserved for 2024."

While the training wheels will be on with the limited at-bats, it's finally time to see what St. Louis will look like with Winn manning shortstop.

More MLB: Cardinals Slugger Appears To Have Lingering Injury After Missing Multiple Games

Published Aug 18, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the St. Louis Cardinals for FanNation's "Inside The Cardinals" on Sports Illustrated. Before starting "Inside The Cardinals", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." After a few months as the top Major League Baseball site in the program, Neville sought expansion and pitched "Inside The Cardinals," one of the newest additions to FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group. The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Cardinals" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu