Keeping his eyes on the team stars, Cardinals’ Sosa hoping for big season in 2022
On Thursday morning, on Field 5 of the St. Louis Cardinals spring training complex, Edmundo Sosa was dealing with a familiar feeling.
His hindquarters hurt.
Teammate Dakota Hudson spun a curveball that struck Sosa on the rear end and broke the rest of the camp out into hysterics. Hudson opined later he was pretty sure the shortstop would be OK. After all, he has an unusual amount of experience in that area.
Sosa’s 17 times hit by a pitch in 2021 tied for ninth in all of baseball. That he accomplished that total in 326 plate appearances, though, stands out. No other hitter with as many came to the plate fewer than 501 times.
Getting on base and driving the offense by any means necessary helped Sosa earn his playing time and put him in the lineup for the team’s lone postseason game. Down the stretch, he was the no doubt starter at shortstop, and yet he enters this season once again starting on the bench as the Cardinals seek to get Paul DeJong back on track.
“He put all his effort into being healthy and staying healthy. That way he could avoid injuries during the season,” Cardinals director of international scouting Luis Morales said, acting as an interpreter for Sosa. “He feels like the way that he plays, with high energy, he knows that he needs to get stronger so he can be able to put up a full season.”
Sosa theorized he was so much a ball magnet in large part because he suspects the scouting reports of opponents encourage them to bust him inside, often off the plate. That’s not an uncommon strategy for attacking a young hitter, particularly one who was considered more of a glove-first player during his path through the minor leagues.
‘Compete’
With only 13 Major League plate appearances to his credit entering last season, Sosa’s power outbreak surprised nearly all observers. His six homers accompanied eight doubles and four triples; with 18 extra base hits compared to DeJong’s 30, he still passed his competition in on base plus slugging percentage by more than 60 points (.735 to .674).
“Compete,” was what manager Oliver Marmol said Sosa needed to do with his time on the field this spring training. “That’s the beauty of this game every day. As long as you come into the yard ready to compete, you have an opportunity to not only break with us, but to be in the starting lineup, and he’s a guy that’s going to take that and run with it.”
Sosa, for his part, doesn’t view the battle for shortstop as a competition. DeJong is a partner and a teammate, and the two represent internal options which are strong enough that it kept the Cardinals away from alternate options on the free agent market, such as Trevor Story.
“My relationship with (DeJong) is very good. I feel he’s a great guy,” Sosa said through Morales. “We’re both helping. Everybody’s healthy and we’re pulling for the same thing, which is to win a World Series.”
“(Sosa) loves competition,” Marmol added, “and I think that’s going to bring out the best of him.”
Smaller uniform number?
His best, though, may have been seen at home this winter. Rather than another offseason spent getting reps in the Dominican Winter League, Sosa instead went home to Panama to spend time with his wife and infant daughter. He was able to rest and enjoy his family, and was proud to report with an enormous smile that his daughter is doing well, “getting big.”
A full summer in the majors both permitted Sosa the financial flexibility to make that decision and pushed him toward seeking out the necessary rest to prepare for what he hopes will be another year of the same.
Arriving in Jupiter, his familiar number 63 jersey was hanging in his locker, which came as a surprise to some observers. Retired Cardinal Matt Holliday, who has spent time around the club since his retirement as an unofficial advisor, suggested to Sosa it might be time to move down into the smaller, more Major League digits.
For Sosa, though, what was originally a random assignment turned out to be meaningful. His favorite number, he explained, is six. His birthday, March 6, is represented by his number inverted, and his late father’s birthday was October 3.
No bench for Sosa
With all of that in mind, it was pretty hard to talk Sosa down from the sixties.
He won’t be talking himself off the bench, either. His play will do that, considered in combination with DeJong’s, and measured against availability. While he worked mostly at shortstop this winter, he also made sure to stay sharp at second and third base. Versatility is a weapon, and Marmol said he would seek game reps for Sosa at those spots in spring to keep him sharp.
In the meantime, Sosa said he’s keeping his eye on the stars who have already cemented their places — Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and the others who are set to headline lineups all summer long.
“In the future, (I’ll) hopefully get in a position like them,” Sosa said.
No one saw last year coming. The future may well surprise less.
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 8:00 AM.