The St. Louis Cardinals should look at the non-tendered players to improve the outfield
The St. Louis Cardinals have been playing hard to get so far this off-season. But with the market flooded by a tidal wave of non-tendered players, there’s no better time for the home team to try to improve itself on a shoestring budget.
We’ll soon know if John Mozeliak and the rest of his front office crew are serious about trying to build a contender for the 2021 season — or if they’re just making excuses to keep fans off their backs.
The Cardinals had the least productive outfield in Major League Baseball last year, and the hunting grounds for productive outfielders are rich right now.
David Dahl was cut loose this week by the Colorado Rockies. He was absolutely terrible last season with a .188 batting average and a .222 on-base percentage. But a lot of players were terrible last year in an uncomfortable, short season that didn’t allow hitters to ever really find a groove if they didn’t start off hot. Only 26, Dahl is a .286 career hitter with a .334 on-base mark. He batted .302 with 28 doubles and 15 homers in 2019 playing left field for the Rox. Those are numbers that could certainly help St. Louis and Dahl is young enough to support the idea that his bad 2020 was a fluke and he’s still on the upswing.
Another left fielder who could really help the Birds is former Minnesota Twins slugger Eddie Rosario. A .257 hitter with 13 homers in 210 at-bats last year, Rosario led the Twins in RBI. He was set free in what amounted to purely a cost-cutting move for a team that had a young prospect primed to take over in Rosario’s position. Baseball Reference predicts Rosario will hit .266 with 18 homers in 375 at-bats in 2021 at the age of 29.
If you want a guy who you can count on to hit .260 with 20 home runs to play in an outfield corner, look no farther than former Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers slugger Nomar Mazara who every year of his big league career has been right around those numbers -- with the exception, of course, of last season when he hit .218 with one homer.
While there are no Albert Pujols sort of hitters in the MLB recycling bin, there are certainly several guys who could help out. The Cardinals could field a pretty good team next year if they moved quickly to sign a complementary hitter and signed franchise legends Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright to reasonable new contracts. Then they could really put things over the top with one large, long-term deal that leveraged the payroll flexibility the team will have in 2022 and beyond when Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler, Carlos Martinez and Andrew Miller will be off the books.
I’d hate to see the Cardinals wait until the best players were snapped up and make some sort of silly move to sign Chicago Cubs castoffs Kyle Schwarber or Jose Martinez. Schwarber is a slow pitch softball player just waiting for MLB teams to stop giving him chances so he can pursue his true calling. Martinez, who broke the hearts of a small but loyal portion of St. Louis fandom last season when he was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Cubs, might be a sentimental choice. But he’s only a pinch hitter who is liability anyplace in the field. The Cardinals need to shoot higher and find an outfielder that can play everyday. And the waiver wire is the perfect place to look if they prefer a guy they can land on a one-year deal to keep their flexibility for 2022.
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Scott Wuerz is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. The Cheap Seats blog is written from his perspective as a fan and is designed to spark discussion among fans of the Cardinals and other MLB teams. Sources supporting his views and opinions are linked. If you’re looking for Cardinals news and features, check out the BND’s Cardinals section.
