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Masyn Winn has been the big beneficiary.
#STLCards manager Oli Marmol said SS Paul DeJong (back stiffness) will be “sidelined for a few days.” Marmol said DeJong is still experiencing pain “when he's bending over for ground balls” but not when he swings a bat.
The team still hopes to get him ABs before breaking camp.
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) March 15, 2023
Pulling together multiple threads…
Seeing Brendan Donovan at shortstop today, Paul DeJong's continued ailments and the solid spring showing by multiple young players inspired me to put down my thoughts about how the #stlcards middle infield could change in 2023. (free) https://t.co/gE2KWY5YoL pic.twitter.com/whPSXC9roD
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) March 16, 2023
Very insightful Brian. I think you may be onto something there. There are teams out there who would probably take PDJ if the Cardinals pay most of the contract (Dodgers, Rockies). As you have said before it is as important to watch what the Cardinals do as to what they say.
Hopefully Paulie will be fully recovered in time for opening day and his injury won’t prevent the Redbirds from repeating as NLC champs, but it’s nice to know that Donovan can be summoned if needed.
“Our hope is that we have a much better idea (soon) than we do at the moment with DeJong’s offseason and how it translates to this season,” Marmol said before Saturday’s game, in a quote that sure sounded like it was nudging the shortstop to return to games ASAP.
I bolded that last part. I came upon this by accident while reading a story about Motter, so it was well buried. Is PDJ being accused of sandbagging here? If that might be overstating things, then lets ask if there is reason to think Paul needs to be nudged? I don’t think I have seen a legit sports media person say it out loud anyway.
Take the $$ equation out of the picture and then there would be no reason for having DeJong taking up a valuable roster spot. I don’t know what other teams do under these circumstances but our owner/FO have done a disservice to the team’s ability to be the best it could be, and there has been a history of that in recent years.
DeJong has very little current value as a DH. At this point he’s a very expensive veteran, late inning defensive substitution.
If the Cardinals have a mind to trade him then DeJong may be playing along with the stiff back so as not to provide more data points on his sub-par hitting…..
Some of the younger players are probably better off playing every day at Memphis rather than rotting on the Cardinal’s bench so….
I guess we shall see.
Agreed 14N. Unless it was a misinterpretation by the P-D reporter, Marmol might be working the room to get better use out of the roster slot. That quoted statement may have been meant to nudge, but not Paul.
I see Motter is at short today. Perhaps another nudge. Mo might leave Ollie saddled with a guy he doesn’t want, but he’ll have sore ribs.
The Cards gave up on Sosa for PDJ and then gave up on Kramer for PDJ. Both of them could do what he’s doing for way less. Robertson is back in the system and he or Motter could replace PDJ. Its time to move on. The PDJ ship has sailed.
An interesting take ZTR. I don’t think Paul’s value could get lower, though. There are years of data points. I think he is a person of good character trying his best, but it is not going to work. It is possible Paul can see that whatever he was doing isn’t working.
Unless some team is willing to pay more than $2 million of DeJong’s salary this year (knowing that they’ll also owe his $2 million buyout next year), then he likely isn’t going anywhere. He’s just as good as Kramer (both defensively and offensively) and Motter isn’t a shortstop. Someone has to sit the bench so all our other hitters can get at bats. So to me, there’s zero urgency to get rid of DeJong unless someone else is willing to pay for him.
Motter isn’t a shortstop
True, but we don’t need a shortstop or a backup shortstop. Or a ready to come up if needed shortstop for that matter.
If I’m not mistaken, in order to send PDJ to AAA he would have to clear waivers, right? But if someone claimed him, wouldn’t they have to pay his salary?
I wouldn’t be at all too uncomfortable with Donvovan as an interim SS and Gorman at 2B in the event of an injury to Edman. There’d be a question of a possible temporary defensive downgrade, but I think you’d have the same situation with DeJong filling in at SS for Eddie. Gorman may again struggle to put it into play if he were placed at 2B and in the line-up every day for a month or so, but I’d have to think that if he indeed did, it couldn’t be any worse than having DeJong get 4 PA’s every day. DeJong is a .180 hitter in his last 639 PA’s.
BrockLou, IIRC, when he was sent down last year, he was just short of the service time necessary to decline to go. I think he has the service time now.
Bling…So, in that case, the only options the Cardinals retain are to release him and pay him what he’s owed or keep him and squander a roster spot?
Yes, those are the only options. Unless they trade him. But he has a large negative value so we’d likely be eating almost all of his salary and get nothing meaningful in return. Therefore, the most likely outcome is we keep him as an emergency backup shortstop who can handle the position defensively, but is very likely to be bad as a hitter.
I said Motter is not a SS but he’s playing there today. So I guess he can play it. But I seriously doubt he’s very good at it. But that is another option. We could release DeJong and put Motter in his spot. It’s likely to be the same outcome – limited at bats for Motter only now instead we get a poor fielding shortstop who can hit for some power and we’re paying DeJong’s full salary (minus the $700,00 league minimum) to play elsewhere.
Thanks, Jnevel. I’d have to say that we already have 2 emergency SS’s. Whether they keep him or release him they pay him, so in addition to squandering money, the Cardinals are squandering a roster spot. The ol’ sever your nose to spite your face trick…
We don’t need him or want him, so just suck it up and move on and save the intellectual energy for solving other problems. The money/value is lost anyway.
I disagree with that take. Just because he’s not worth the value that we’re paying him (and he’s almost certainly not) doesn’t mean he isn’t worth anything and we should throw him away. He’s still at least an MLB average shortstop and maybe a little better than that. And, he’s hit better than Motter or Robinson or Fermin his entire career. We saw him way outhit any of them in AAA last year. So there’s just really no reason to release him. A team needs a competent backup shortstop because it’s such a key position. He’ll sit on the bench and watch while we give key at bats to others. That is not sexy. But it’s good smart business because it gives us a solid safety net. I honestly don’t care too much either way. But I’m not going to be upset if they keep him as a safety valve because it’s probably the smart thing to do.
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