Cardinals Face Roster Deadline on Rule 5 Pick Pushard

The Cardinal Chronicle
Cardinals Face Roster Deadline on Rule 5 Pick Pushard
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals are approaching a key roster decision—one that cannot be delayed or quietly tabled for another day.

Right-hander Matt Pushard, selected by the Cardinals in December’s Rule 5 draft from the Miami Marlins, is nearing the end of his injury rehab assignment. After missing time with right knee patellar tendinitis, Pushard’s final rehab days are ticking down. When his window closes, the Cardinals must either activate him to the 26-man roster, place him on waivers, or negotiate a trade with Miami to retain him without Rule 5 restrictions.

That is what makes this more than a routine bullpen transaction.

Pushard is not just another reliever on an optional assignment. He is a Rule 5 player, and Rule 5 players come with strings attached. The Cardinals selected him with the understanding that if they wanted to keep his full rights, they would have to carry him on the active major league roster or major league injured list for the season.

They cannot simply option him to Triple-A Memphis like they can with other bullpen pieces.

That puts Chaim Bloom and the Cardinals’ front office on the clock.
The cleanest baseball move may also be the most restrictive: activate Pushard and carry him in the major league bullpen. That would allow St. Louis to keep him in the organization and keep on the Rule 5 process, but it would also require creating room on the 26-man roster.

That is where the decision gets interesting.

The Cardinals are not just evaluating Pushard in a vacuum. They are evaluating him against the current bullpen, the remaining options on the 40-man roster, the need for fresh arms, and the broader question of whether he can help the big-league club right now.

Rule 5 players always force clubs to weigh present value against future control. Pushard’s fastball-slider mix and minor league strikeout rates suggest value, but the Cardinals must determine if they can afford to protect him on a roster already carrying several relievers.

The second option is more final. If the Cardinals decide they cannot carry Pushard, they would have to place him on waivers. If another club claims him, he is gone. If he clears waivers, he must be offered back to the Marlins.

Either way, that would likely bring his time with St. Louis to an end unless Miami declined the return.

For a club trying to build pitching depth, that is not nothing.

The Cardinals drafted Pushard for a reason. Rule 5 picks are rarely made casually, especially by a front office focused on rebuilding the club’s pitching depth. Pushard, 26, posted a 2.81 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 48 innings at Double-A last season, offering the fastball command and slider movement that intrigued St. Louis enough to carry him through camp and into the regular-season picture.

Walking away now would mean admitting the roster fit is no longer there, not necessarily that the evaluation was wrong.

There is a third path, and it may be the most practical one if both clubs are willing: work out a minor trade with Miami for Pushard’s full rights.

That would free the Cardinals from the Rule 5 restrictions and allow them to option Pushard to Memphis without risking losing him. It would also allow St. Louis to keep the pitcher, protect the major league bullpen structure and buy more developmental time.

The cost would likely be cash considerations or a minor-league piece, depending on how Miami values the possibility of getting him back.

That kind of deal is often where Rule 5 decisions quietly get settled. It does not come with fireworks. It does not lead to Baseball Tonight. But it can matter, especially for a club trying to stack as many usable arms as possible.

The Cardinals’ bullpen has already had its share of moving parts, and Pushard’s return forces another round of roster math.

If the club believes he can handle lower-leverage innings, perhaps with the ability to stretch for multiple outs, activating him makes sense. If they believe he needs more time, a trade with Miami becomes the sensible route. If neither answer is appealing, waivers become the escape hatch.

But escape hatches usually come with a cost.

The old-school view is simple: if a team likes the arm, find a way to keep the arm. Pitching depth disappears quickly over a six-month season. One week, a reliever looks blocked. Next week, he is throwing the seventh inning in a one-run game because two other arms are tired and another one has a cranky elbow.

That is baseball.

Depth looks excessive until it suddenly looks like survival.

Pushard may not be the biggest name in the Cardinals’ bullpen conversation, but his roster fate is a revealing test of the club’s priorities.

The upcoming decision will show how much St. Louis values its initial Rule 5 evaluation, how aggressive Chaim Bloom is willing to be with bullpen roles, and whether the front office will spend a prospect or cash to preserve pitching depth for the long haul.

The clock is ticking.

By the end of this decision, the Cardinals will either have found a place for Matt Pushard, found a way to keep him, or watched a Rule 5 gamble reach its natural end.

None of those choices is complicated on paper.

But on a major league roster, simple decisions have a way of becoming difficult ones.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports