Will there be room for Tommy Edman in Cardinals’ offseason makeover?
Somewhere in an alternate universe, a 10-year-old Tommy Edman in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla is “probably pretty disappointed,” the 28-year-old utility ace laughed Wednesday, just after delivering a walk-off Cardinals victory against Padres closer Josh Hader for the second consecutive day.
The two wins sent a jolt of energy through a spiraling St. Louis clubhouse, lifting spirits in a tough stretch of the season with just a month of play remaining. They were also emblematic of the value Edman holds for his team, and in other ways, suggestive of the challenges awaiting this winter as the Cardinals move to reshape their roster on the fly.
“This guy is extremely prepared and a great competitor,” manager Oliver Marmol said of his now-center fielder.
Edman started the season as the team’s starting shortstop, had stints in right field and at second base, and has now settled in seemingly as the starter in center as other players have come and gone from the injured list and the minor leagues.
That makes him extremely valuable by any metric, and his willingness to bounce between the top and bottom of the lineup is yet another demonstration of his flexibility. And yet it’s precisely that flexibility and the value it carries which makes Edman such a vexing figure in determining his future fit.
The other important component of Wednesday’s comeback Cardinals victory was the prominence of Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn. Walker turned in his first career four-hit game and first career three-run home run, and Winn sparked the victory with a two-out double in the ninth – while swinging one of Walker’s bats.
That duo, both 21, are at the center of the team’s future plans in the field. Winn, though, is cemented at shortstop. Walker is receiving extended opportunities to figure out the outfield and will also see stretches at designated hitter, but each of them necessarily puts limitations on Edman’s value simply by limiting the places where he’s able to play.
This season was Edman’s first in which he was eligible for salary arbitration, and he settled with the team on a $4.2 million contract. That number will climb over the next two years as a function of that system, and after the 2025 season, he’ll be eligible for free agency.
Historically, a player like Edman – flexible, homegrown, valuable on both sides of the ball – is the sort of player the Cardinals would rush to sign to a contract extension. That it hasn’t happened yet is a curious departure from their standard operating procedures, and speaks to some extent to the challenges in locating the surplus value that teams seek in such extensions.
San Diego’s Jake Cronenworth, a year older than Edman but a half season behind him in reaching the majors, reached an agreement on a contract extension on the eve of this season which bought out five of his free agent seasons, locking him in to a seven-year, $80 million pact that starts next season.
Cronenworth hits for more power than Edman but is a largely comparable offensive player; Edman is a far superior baserunner, making up for some of the gap at the plate. And Cronenworth, while capable of playing all four infield positions, doesn’t play the outfield at all, let alone center. Nor is he nearly as good an infield defender. Edman won a Gold Glove at second base in 2021, was a finalist for the utility Gold Glove in 2022, and is a strong favorite to win that award this season.
Given that comparison and the rapidly arriving decision point for the Cardinals, will they be willing to make such a significant financial commitment to Edman? If not, and mired in a search for effective starting pitching, is his next valuable placement for the Cardinals as a trade piece over the winter?
The team has long resisted trade discussions which include Edman, but despite his unending push for flexibility, it’s difficult to see a future fit given their current roster construction. A recovered Brendan Donovan is a more than capable defender around the infield and in the corner outfield (he won that 2022 utility Gold Glove), and Nolan Gorman’s arrival as a legitimate power threat and capable defender at second base forecloses yet another potential avenue to playing time.
A version of the 2024 Cardinals roster which includes all of Donovan, Edman and Gorman is likely a version of the roster which was insufficiently tweaked and improved over the winter. There will be painful decisions made in the name of tradeoffs elsewhere, and Wednesday’s victory was a showcase for two sides of that decision scale that illustrate those challenges.
Tommy Edman can help any team win many games over the course of a big league season, and the Cardinals have come to rely on him for that. The realities of contractual obligations and deadlines, though, might significantly change the way in which they look at that value.
