Yohel Pozo, who was one of the best feel-good stories in all of baseball in 2025, was not tendered a contract by the Cardinals on Friday despite ranking second in MLB in pinch-hit RBIs with seven.
As expected, 31-year-old left-handed reliever John King, injured Minor League pitcher Sem Robberse and designated-for-assignment reliever Jorge Alcala were also not tendered contracts by the Cards on Friday, MLB’s deadline by which teams had to decide which players with fewer than six years of service time would be tendered deals for the 2026 season. Pozo, King, Robberse and Alcala immediately become free agents, but there is a strong chance that Pozo could return to the Cards on a Minor League deal because of the franchise’s affection for his infectiously positive attitude and his uncommon talent as a pinch-hitter.
The Cardinals now have seven players who are eligible for contract arbitration: JoJo Romero (third year), All-Star Brendan Donovan (second year), Lars Nootbaar (second year), Andre Pallante (first year), Matthew Liberatore (first year), Nolan Gorman (first year) and Silver Slugger winner Alec Burleson (first year). Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras have fully guaranteed veteran contracts, while 27 other players on the 40-man roster were tendered pre-arbitration level contracts.
Pozo, who once battled through homelessness when the Minor Leagues shut down in 2020 and was raising a seriously ill newborn son, proved to be quite a weapon off the bench for the Cards this past season. The Venezuela native had six hits, two doubles and a game-winning home run as a pinch-hitter in 2025, and his seven RBIs off the bench tied for second in baseball behind only Rowdy Tellez’s 11 for Seattle and Texas.
Pozo’s pinch-hit home run on July 5 lifted the Cards past the rival Cubs at Wrigley Field. Overall, the catcher/DH/first baseman hit just .231 with five homers, eight doubles and 19 RBIs in 67 games.
King, 31, certainly hasn’t been flashy, but the sinkerball lefty served as an important part of a bullpen that has been the strength of the Cardinals the past two seasons. Arriving to the Cards in 2023 after the trading of left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery, King produced a ground-ball rate of 61.5 percent in 2024 and 60 percent in 2025 – both figures ranking in MLB’s 98th percentile, per Baseball Savant. However, King – who recently welcomed the birth of his first child – saw his ERA spike to 4.66 in 2025 after posting a 2.85 mark in 2024.
King, who made $1.6 million in 2025, per Spotrac.com, was eligible for round three of salary arbitration this winter.
Robberse, 24 and a native of the Netherlands, made just four starts in 2025 for Triple-A Memphis before needing Tommy John ligament replacement surgery for his right elbow. He had a solid 2024 season for Single-A Palm Beach and Triple-A Memphis, going 4-4 with a 4.38 ERA and 80 strikeouts over 90 1/3 innings.
Alcala was designated for assignment earlier in the week when the Cardinals added Double-A stars Leonardo Bernal, Joshua Baez and Brycen Mautz to their 40-man roster to protect them from being eligible for MLB’s Rule 5 Draft in December.