Which of these players should be the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting second baseman in 2024?

It’s not particularly difficult to figure out the right way to solve the St. Louis Cardinals’ problems on the pitching mound. They simply need more innings, a lot more of them, and they have to be quality.

Those can be purchased on the market or acquired via trade, but they will need to come in bulk. This has been well established and will be the gravitational force that governs the rest of the winter’s movement.

What’s more challenging, however, is making all of the position player pieces fit.

Two players on the Cardinals roster enter 2024 having made at least 100 starts over the last two seasons at second base, and neither Tommy Edman nor Nolan Gorman is guaranteed to start the majority of games there next season. Brendan Donovan, having made 62 starts there over the same period, will be recovered from elbow surgery in time for spring training, and seems all but certain to reclaim his place atop the batting order and in the middle infield.

Those variables all must be taken into account before even reaching Thomas Saggese, who appeared primarily at – of course – second base after being acquired at the trade deadline in the deal that saw postseason hero Jordan Montgomery and reliever Chris Stratton sent to Texas.

Saggese was named MVP of the Texas League and won the overall Double-A batting title, and despite getting off to a slow start after a late promotion to Triple-A Memphis, recorded an .806 OPS with four doubles and a home run in his final nine games. He’ll turn 22 just after the start of next season, and he’ll have every opportunity during his upcoming, first Major League spring training to demonstrate his readiness for the big leagues.

The worst Cardinals team in decades is not in a position to jettison talent for nothing, and given that they managed to squeak through the end of the 2023 season with sub-replacement players filling out the infield, having each of the four available at full strength will undoubtedly come as a welcome respite. What’s a challenge, though, is determining whether holding on to each of the four is the best way to maximize their value.

Some of those calculations won’t depend solely on their own performance. Edman, for one, is believed internally to be the team’s best defensive option in centerfield, cementing Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker in the corners and shipping Tyler O’Neill off to the first willing bidder.

Availability of that spot, though, will depend on Dylan Carlson’s recovery from ankle surgery and whether the Cardinals are eager to continue to pour time and effort into his development. They may well opt for a sell low posture on Carlson in order to guarantee time for Edman and alleviate some of the blockage in the infield. That would be unusual given their traditional method of asset management, but much of the team’s past practice could be abandoned this winter in pursuit of avoiding another dismal failure of a season.

The same principle applies at shortstop, where the team has stopped short of declaring Masyn Winn the incumbent starter entering spring but will certainly give him every opportunity to earn that declaration before the schedule starts. If Winn can be counted on to start approximately 75% of the games at short, then Edman’s need there diminishes, and he’s freed up for more time in the outfield – or, perhaps, as a trade asset.

Saggese has some experience at short in the minors, and Donovan has played there as well. Either would be sufficient as an occasional fill-in for an established starter, but neither has Edman’s skill to handle the position for extended stretches. If Winn does need additional minor league seasoning, then Edman would be the starter at short, and the ripples move first into center and then out from there.

Gorman’s hard work in transitioning from third base and his strong throwing arm that has been primed for the corner have allowed him to make great leaps in his work at second. Edman won a Gold Glove at that spot in 2021, and Donovan won last season’s utility Gold Glove (for which Edman is the strong favorite this year), based in large part on his work at second.

Any of the three can handle the spot more than adequately, and Saggese is also considered a positive defender at second. Gorman is perhaps the best (or at least most experienced) of the three at third base while also carrying power in his swing that the others won’t match, and Donovan is the only one of the four who also has extensive experience at first base. That power is a big part of why Gorman’s lefty swing (as opposed to Donovan and Edman’s) makes him such an appealing option at designated hitter.

Flexibility has been an historical hallmark of the way the Cardinals have shaped their rosters, and it’s players like these four that make it possible. That flexibility, though, runs the risk of bleeding into a lack of certainty and stability. For a team that’s both in need of movable assets and seeking to reestablish its firm baseline, making the tough decision to go in one specific direction might necessarily require shutting others out.

Identifying the 2024 starting second baseman in the middle of October 2023 is none too simple. It’s likely in the best interest of the club that the situation clarifies itself by March.