{"id":495127,"date":"2026-02-21T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495127\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:56:13","slug":"cardinals-to-sign-ramon-urias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495127\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals To Sign Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 21: Ur\u00edas gets a one-year, $2MM guarantee, per Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic<\/a>. That comes in the form of a $1.5MM salary in 2026 and a $500k buyout on a 2027 mutual option. Ur\u00edas can earn up to $2MM in incentives based on plate appearances.<\/p>\n

February 20: The Cardinals and infielder Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas<\/a> are closing in on a deal, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat<\/a>. The details of the contract being discussed haven\u2019t yet been reported. The Cards have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move if this ends up being a major league deal for the Wasserman client.<\/p>\n

Ur\u00edas, 32 in June, has been a solid multi-positional player for the past six big league seasons. Most of that time was spent with the Orioles, though he was traded to the Astros at last year\u2019s deadline. He has stepped to the plate 1,856 times in the majors, roughly three full seasons\u2019 worth, and hit 50 home runs in that time. His .257\/.321\/.403 batting line translates to a 104 wRC+, indicating he\u2019s been 4% above average on the whole.<\/p>\n

His defense is even stronger than his offense. He has mostly played third base but has also spent some time at the other infield positions. He\u2019s probably stretched as a shortstop but he has received strong reviews for his work at the hot corner. He won the American League Gold Glove at that position in 2022, getting credited with 14 Defensive Runs Saved and eight Outs Above Average. For what it\u2019s worth, in the years since, DRS still views him as a positive defender but OAA has him below par. His work at the keystone is well regarded, with 11 DRS and 2 OAA. He has fewer than 100 innings at first base.<\/p>\n

He is coming off a down year at the plate. Between the O\u2019s and the \u2019Stros, he slashed .241\/.292\/.384 for an 87 wRC+. Houston could have retained him via arbitration for 2026, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz<\/a> projecting a $4.4MM salary, but they decided to non-tender him instead.<\/p>\n

For St. Louis, Ur\u00edas should backfill some of their missing infield depth. The Cards are rebuilding and traded away Nolan Arenado<\/a>, Brendan Donovan<\/a> and Willson Contreras<\/a> this winter. Those moves both saved money and also freed up playing time for some younger players the organization would like to get a look at.<\/p>\n

On the dirt, they project to have Masyn Winn<\/a> at short and Alec Burleson<\/a> at first, with the other two positions a bit more open. Nolan Gorman<\/a> seems likely to take over the third base job but also has lots of experience at second. JJ Wetherholt<\/a> could get the second base gig but he hasn\u2019t yet cracked the major leagues.<\/p>\n

Behind those leading candidates, the Cards also have Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn<\/a>, Thomas Saggese<\/a>, Bryan Torres<\/a> and C\u00e9sar Prieto<\/a> on the 40-man roster. No one in that group has more than 100 big league games played. All of them except for Ferm\u00edn have options, so perhaps the club would prefer them to get regular playing time in the minors if they don\u2019t have regular big league jobs. Gorman also has options and is coming off two rough years at the plate.<\/p>\n

When dealing with a group of fairly unproven guys, some will perform and some will not. On top of that, injuries are inevitable. Ur\u00edas is coming off a down year at the plate but is a fairly reliable veteran who could step in to cover for some of the other guys, if necessary. If he\u2019s on the roster and playing well in the summer, he would be a logical trade candidate for the rebuilding club.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 21: Ur\u00edas gets a one-year, $2MM guarantee, per Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. That comes in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,31317,85],"class_list":["post-495127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-ramon-urias","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}