Cardinals reveal Opening Day 29-man roster

There were no great surprises when the St. Louis Cardinals released their Opening Day roster Thursday, except perhaps the inclusion of only 29 names.

Teams can include up to 30 players on their roster (five more than a year ago) when the season opens, a measure developed to help them deal with the potential loss of players to positive COVID-19 tests.  The Cardinals, who have not been hit hard by the coronavirus thus far, elected to go with 29.

The Cardinals will host the Pirates at 7 p.m. Friday in their season and home opener. Pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m. on FOX Sports Midwest.

Several roster moves were required to get to that list of 29:

• Pitcher Kodi Whitley was selected from the club’s alternate training site roster.

• Outfielder Austin Dean, pitcher Junior Fernandez, catcher Andrew Knizner and infielder Edmundo Sosa were recalled from the alternate training site roster.

Opening the season on the injured list are pitchers John Brebbia (45-day, right elbow), Giovanny Gallegos (unspecified) and Jordan Hicks (45-day, right elbow) and infielder/outfielder Brad Miller (10-day, right ankle – bursitis). Brebbia and Hicks have been ruled out for the season, but Gallegos could be ready for duty before long.

The players on the Opening Day roster:

PITCHERS (14): Junior Fernandez, Jack Flaherty, John Gant, Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, Dakota Hudson, Kwang Hyun Kim, Carlos Martínez, Miles Mikolas, Andrew Miller, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Adam Wainwright, Tyler Webb, Kodi Whitley.

CATCHERS (3): Andrew Knizner, Yadier Molina, Matt Wieters.

INFIELDERS (7): Matt Carpenter, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt, Rangel Ravelo, Edmundo Sosa, Kolten Wong.

OUTFIELDERS (5): Harrison Bader, Austin Dean, Dexter Fowler, Tyler O’Neill, Lane Thomas.