Cardinals’ best bet is to give Dylan Carlson his shot and resign Marcell Ozuna
If the St. Louis Cardinals sign Marcell Ozuna to continue to be their cleanup hitter in 2020 and beyond, not only wouldn’t it hurt the development of prospect Dylan Carlson, it would only make things easier for the promising 21-year-old prospect.
Ozuna, who at one time was a Gold Glove Award winner, is anchored in left field these days. Carlson mostly plays center on defense. So if he won playing time it would be taken from either Harrison Bader, who doesn’t have the same upside as Carlson, or fading veteran Dexter Fowler, who would likely benefit by being shielded from less favorable match ups.
Meanwhile, it would be completely unfair for a contending Redbirds team to put all the weight of hitting cleanup on a 21-year-old who is still tyring to get his feet beneath himself. It would be a tragedy if St. Louis crushed Carlson’s confidence by expecting too much too soon.
Major league talent has to be developed and sometimes that takes a little bit of time. A guy like Albert Pujols, who can jump right in and carry the offense, is a once in a lifetime find. And even when Pujols made his debut, then manager Tony La Russa was very careful to bring him along slowly. In fact, he made the Opening Day roster in 2001 only because of an injury to Kevin Mitchell.
The Redbirds weren’t counting on Albert to finish in the top four of the NL MVP balloting or to win Rookie of the Year.
The idea that the Cardinals don’t have to to sign Ozuna — or Josh Donaldson or another middle of the order hitter — because it will block the kids graduating from the minor leagues is ridiculous. Don’t believe for a second that there isn’t room for a talent infusion.
If Carlson and Lane Thomas turn out to be the second coming of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, Fowler can ride the pine and two of the three remaining outfield options — Tyler O’Neill, Jose Martinez and Bader — could be traded to try to address other needs.
St. Louis needs to concern itself more with the quality of its players than the quantity of them. The club basically gave away Adolis Garcia a few days ago because it didn’t have enough spots to keep him on the 40-man roster. But the team supposedly turned down trade proposals for Bader and O’Neill at the deadline.
The Cardinals could have groomed O’Neill to take over for Ozuna last year. But he spent the season either riding the big-league bench or toiling in Memphis because the team couldn’t afford to be without one of its most productive run producers. He’s still an unknown quantity when a little bit of certainty one way or the other would have been nice.
If Carlson is ready in 2020, I’d rather see him bat second than cleanup, even though he blasted 26 home runs last year in the minors.
He’s a guy who has shown he can get on base at a decent clip, although he strikes out quite a bit. So put him in front of established sluggers Paul Goldschmidt and Ozuna so he sees more strikes.
Assuming that the Matt Carpenter batting lead-off days are over, Kolton Wong could finally get his shot to bat first with he and Carlson giving St. Louis a one-two punch of hitters who can drive the ball into the gap and make opposing defenses pay wit their legs.
Hopefully, the Cardinals will win the waiting game for Ozuna and be able to bring him back on a contract of three years or less. Projections that he could get a five-year deal for $100 million or more seem ridiculous. If Ozuna leaves, St. Louis has lots of options when it comes to finding guys to catch fly balls, but it doesn’t have any other realistic options for a cleanup hitter.
