It’s a crime that Dylan Carlson isn’t on the St. Louis Cardinals roster right now

I get that the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t bring up Dylan Carlson at the beginning of the abbreviated 2020 season because they were trying to maximize their control over the organization’s top prospect before he reaches free agency.

But, with the team off to a slow start — and now a quarter of the Cardinals roster on the shelf because of COVID-19 — it’s a little ridiculous and just plain greedy for the team to let Carlson cool his heals at the team’s alternate training site in Springfield, Mo.

Do I think a rookie is likely to put a team that willingly cast off its cleanup hitter instead of offering him a one-year contract back in business offensively? Probably not. But Carlson is now past the point where the Cardinals have saved a year of service time. The only thing they have left to save is some cash because, by not bringing him up for a couple of weeks they could keep the kid from reaching arbitration a year sooner as a Super Two player. Holding him out for that is just dumb for several reasons.

First, Carlson isn’t facing real game competition in Springfield. Facing minor league pitchers in scrimmages and batting practice isn’t the same as competing against big league hurlers. The Cardinals claim that he might not get to play everyday in St. Louis so he’s better off in camp. Bull. There is little or no benefit being in baseball limbo in this highly irregular season.

Second, he might not play every day? Why in the world not? Harrison Bader is off to a horrific start in center field. At the very least, having a little bit of fire underneath him might make Bader play better. But, if the starting center fielder is going to hit less than his weight — and let’s face it, this is a trend that dates back through last season, it’s not just a five-game fluke — why not give the kid a chance to do better. Aging right fielder Dexter Fowler isn’t exactly setting the world on fire in right field these days, either. I have to believe there is some playing time to be had there. If nothing else, now that Matt Carpenter will presumably be pushed back to playing the field by the absence of infielders Paul DeJong and Edmundo Sosa, get Carlson some at bats by using Fowler and left fielder Tyler O’Neill at the designated hitter spot. The fact of the matter is that this team doesn’t have enough players playing well enough to justify the “we don’t have a place to play him” excuse on Carlson.

Finally, at some point this team’s leadership is going to have to realize that the nickel and dime tactics it uses on players is hurting it in the long run. See Exhibit A: Jack Flaherty. The Cardinals used their contractual leverage to save a relative pittance on the team’s young ace, and now he’s determined to return the favor by refusing to sign a team-friendly extension that might give him some security at the cost of limiting his future earning power. Right now, things look so bad in relations between Flaherty and the Cardinals that I’d be shocked if the team keeps him through his arbitration years because it would probably be better off trading him at some point than inevitably letting him walk away as a free agent to the highest bidder. Carlson, sooner or later, is going to be sitting in the same clubhouse as Flaherty and he’s going to notice the similarities of their situations.

Cardinals won’t benefit by keeping Dylan Carlson off the roster

So, will the Cardinals really benefit from adding a year of control? The might have been better off treating these young players like Albert Pujols: Bring them up when they truly deserve it, create some good will, then sign the player to an extension that buys out his arbitration years and extends him well beyond. That’s really the only way to benefit from developing your own star players. Otherwise, they hit the free agent market just as they’re really hitting their prime and they’re quickly going to be out of the Cardinalss’ comfort zone.

John Mozeliak and the front office ought to know this. They brought up and then extended Carpenter, DeJong, Pujols, the unfortunately injured Allen Craig and others in effort to create some continuity — and some labor peace — in the past. Stop playing games and treat players right. Whether or not the average fan thinks a ballplayer should make $10 million, $20 million or $30 million a year, that’s the financial reality of the situation. You can only ignore the real world for so long.

Developing players and then trading them away before they walk out as a free agent isn’t the Cardinals Way. It’s the formula to 30 years of bad Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates baseball. The Cardinals have been a model franchise in baseball until the last couple of years. Do they really want to take a page from the teams who would give anything to trade legacies. This team needs to change it’s ways — and fast — or else the wave of young talent it’s been waiting for is going to wash over it and head back out to the open ocean.

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.