No, the St. Louis Cardinals won’t be trading for J.D. Martinez this season

There’s been a lot of talk, now that we’re supposed to start seeing baseball again soon, that the St. Louis Cardinals could be front and center in trade talks. Specifically, that the Cardinals will trade for Boston Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez. Baseball writers have been trying to link Martinez to the Cardinals since 2017. He fills a need and is an undeniable talent. But sometimes it takes more than that to bring a team and a player together.

Sure, the Cardinals could use a middle of the order bat. Where we last left off, the Cardinals refused to sign former clean-up hitter Marcell Ozuna to even a one-year contract extension and he skedaddled, reluctantly, to the Atlanta Braves. Maybe the Cardinals were interested in signing Josh Donaldson, we speculated.

Then the Nolan Arenado trade rumors began. It all added up to a giant pile of nothing, and I have to believe, if St. Louis was unwilling to invest in a middle of the order slugger in December that it’s not likely to spend big bucks to land one for a 60-game season with drastically reduced income when games start to be played in late July.

But while the Red Sox are looking to part company with Martinez and the Cardinals are in the National League, which has been plagued with the designated hitter for the 2020 season, the coincidences end there. While they technically haven’t had a designated hitter in the past, they already have a man who they appreciate for his bat and try to tolerate his fielding. Matt Carpenter was born to DH with the much better defender Tommy Edman taking over at third base. Beyond that, I see thirty-something first baseman Paul Goldschmidt getting a break from playing in the field here and there. Carpenter could slide in at first base on those days and Goldschmidt could keep his bat in the middle of the order as DH.

Bottom line is that St. Louis doesn’t need a player to specifically be the designated hitter. If somehow the Cardinals did end up with Martinez, I’d think the better fit for him would be in left field because, even though he’s a terrible outfielder, a bad left fielder doesn’t impact the game nearly as often as a bad third baseman with a diminished throwing arm. I readily admit that a lineup of Kolten Wong at second base, Edman at third base, Martinez in left, Goldschmidt at first, Paul DeJong at short, Carpenter in the DH slot, Yadier Molina catching, Tyler O’Neill in right and Harrison Bader in center ought to score runs in bunches. It’s the American League type of offense that the commissioner is apparently bent on seeing. But is adding one bat worth the financial cost?

Martinez has nearly $39 million coming to him in 2021 and 2022. He’ll make a lot less in 2020 because of the shortened season and he could opt out after the year is over. But I don’t see a whole lot of money being thrown around when teams will lose money hand over fist this year thanks to COVID-19. So you’re probably going to be stuck with an aging, one-dimensional player just as you thought the Cardinals were getting out from under some bad money, namely the Brett Cecil, Dexter Fowler, Luke Gregerson and Carpenter contracts. Is that the player you want to tie yourself to, essentially giving up the possibility of being able to add a player like Arenado later?

I think it’s much more likely that the Cardinals will stand pat in 2020, waiting to see what the future holds before committing to any long term financial obligations. Will there be fans in the stands in 2021 and, if so, how many of them? Before we can talk about expanding payroll, we need to see if this team will be able to afford to re-sign Molina and to exercise the option of Wong’s deal. These are uncharted waters for baseball. So it’s a time to proceed with caution.

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.