Thank goodness the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t sign Mike Moustakas

I’m glad it was the Cincinnati Reds and not the St. Louis Cardinals who forked over $64 million for six years of Mike Moustakas.

But the aggressive move should put the Cardinals front office on notice that there is a new entry in the race for the National League Central Division crown. After several years of also ran status, Cincinnati seems poised to capitalize on a surprisingly optimistic 2019 season with its increasingly potent offense. Fortunately, the move came at the expense of Moustakas’ former team, the Milwaukee Brewers, who seem perfectly willing to take the place of the Reds as the NL Central’s renovation project.

While there is no doubt that Moustakas will hit more than his share of homers, especially in the friendly confines of the Great American Ballpark, he wasn’t exactly a perfect fit for the Reds. He’s been signed to play second base in Cincinnati, leaving slugger Eugenio Suarez and his 49 home runs at the hot corner. It’s not an original idea. Moustakas was going to play third base for the Brewers last season. But he ended up spending only 47 games there compared to 93 at his natural position, third.

Baseball-reference.com predicts Moustakas will hit 30 home runs in 2020 — a prognostication made before he moved to the homer haven in Cincinnati — but with an uninspiring .255 batting average and .318 on-base percentage. Considering that Moustakas is on the wrong side of 30 and trying to learn a new position, he seems like a very risky buy for Cincinnati. Will he create more runs with his bat than he surrenders with his glove?

There is really no Plan B. Suarez is younger and his numbers are better across the board. There’s no way the Reds would be a better team if they replaced their most imposing offensive player with a lesser player. The only other position Moustakas has played in the big leagues is first base — and only for four games. But in Cincinnati, that spot is held by franchise player Joey Votto. Injury prone and expensive, Votto isn’t likely to be traded away. If the Reds plan to keep Moustakas as an insurance policy for Votto, the premium is high, counting on your second-most expensive position player to fill in for the most expensive player in franchise history.

It seems like more than a reach for the Reds to lock up Moustakas to a four-year contract when he couldn’t do better than a one-year deal each of the past two off-seasons when he was younger.

I stand by what I said a couple of weeks ago: The Cardinals would be better off going after Josh Donaldson, an older player they could likely get for half the length of commitment it took to get Moustakas. Donaldson is a better defensive third baseman than Moustakas, and St. Louis needs improved defense at the hot corner with Matt Carpenter struggling with a deteriorating throwing arm. Besides, Donaldson is a better clean-up hitter than Moustakas with similar power numbers but a much better on-base percentage.

Moustakas doesn’t fit on Cardinals roster

I hear a lot of people complaining about the fact the Cardinals didn’t land Moustakas. But he seems like more of the same problem St. Louis inflicted on itself when it shoe-horned Dexter Fowler onto its roster with a five-year contract or when it signed Carpenter to an ill-advised contract extension. A one-year deal in 2017 would have made a lot more sense than a four-year deal does now. I suspect that the reason the former Kansas City Royals slugger quickly accepted a deal with a second division team to switch positions is that the offer was so much more lucrative than anything else that was on the table.

While the Reds had a payroll of about $50 million less than the Cardinals in 2019, Cincinnati can afford to overpay for a player because it saved $20 million by allowing the contracts of Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig to expire. While he has his flaws, Moustakas is certainly a more reliable producer than either of those two players at a more affordable cost. But, hopefully, the investment will tie the Reds’ hands and keep them from improving their pitching staff to match their potent offense.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.