ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Spring Training will be a bit different for one weekend for all teams.
While Spring Training is usually a chance for players to ramp up for the regular season, especially for major leaguers, it's also a chance for some minor leaguers, particularly prospects, to get a taste of what being around current major leaguers feels like and to impress MLB managers like Cardinals manager Oli Marmol.
For the weekend of March 15-17, teams for their Spring Training games will only put out a roster of purely prospects for in most cases one game as part of the leagues 'Spring Breakout' initiative: a four-day event showcasing the current stars of Minor League Baseball and baseball's future.
On Thursday, the Cardinals announced the rosters for their Spring Breakout games, with Masyn Winn set to be among the players to appear in the first game on Friday, March 15 game with the Miami Marlins and highly touted prospect Victor Scott II set to be among the players who appear in both games.
The Cardinals are in a unique situation that because of the uneven number of clubs in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. the Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds will be playing two Spring Breakout games.
Each roster will be constructed using MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Prospects list as its foundation. That means that players with rookie eligibility entering the 2024 season -- most of whom will come directly from those Top 30s -- can crack their club’s Spring Breakout roster, meaning even though Cardinals SS Winn did see some MLB time last season, he is eligible to appear in the Spring Breakout game due to still retaining prospect eligibility (albeit barely).
Notable Cardinals prospects in the Cardinals first game include Winn, pitcher Tink Hence (64th overall in MLB Pipeline Top 100) and Tekoah Roby (99th overall in MLB Pipeline Top 100), former Top 100 prospect Gordon Graceffo (Cardinals 10th best prospect) and Scott.
In the second game, the Cardinals roster will have former Mizzou pitcher Ian Badell and pitchers Adam Kloffenstein
Roby, Scott Thomas Saggese, 2023 first round pick Chase Davis, Cardinals 2023 Minor League pitcher of the year Max Rajcic, and catcher Leonardo Bernal will be among the players who will be on both rosters.
Both games will be available on TV, with the Cardinals game against the Marlins will be available to watch on MLB Network at 1 p.m. central time, while the Cardinals game against the Astros will be available on MLB TV. First pitch at 9 a.m.)