Here’s an overview of Paul DeJong’s injury track record, going back to his sophomore year at Illinois State:
2014 college…perfect health (played all 54 games)
2015 college…perfect health (51 of 54)
2015 pro…perfect health
2016…perfect health
2017…perfect health
2018…missed 7 weeks with fractured hand after being hit by a pitch. Besides that, perfect health.
I’m not always an optimist about such things, but I wouldn’t worry one bit about DeJong’s backup. It would shock me if he has to miss significant playing time in 2019. As we can see, he’s been exceptionally durable for five years running, barring unavoidable traumatic injury.
For me the chief Cardinal concern is the same now as it was when the offseason started. The bullpen is possibly terrible, in there is no chance on earth that it will be an asset. In fact right now it looks potentially worse than last year, if such a thing is possible.
But! But there’s still three-weeks-plus before opening Day. Maybe the Birds will take my advice and leverage some of their fallow extra money, turning it into an excellent reliever (or two) like Joe Jimenez or Mychal Givens by accepting bad contracts from the Tigers and Orioles. Exchanging a pair of bad relievers for very good ones could add 3-5 wins to this year’s Redbird victory total. But it will take meaningful money, and probably a couple of mid-level prospects.
Roughly 40% of Cardinal innings will go to relievers this year, and the relief corps is frankly a mess. Not as atrocious as they looked today, but not good at all. Why the front office thought that ONE addition would fix the problem is beyond me. A band-aid for a bullet hole is bad enough, but a single band-aid for 4 or 5 bullet holes is pretty much inexcusable.
Bright side, that Tyler O’Neill kid is something special, huh?! Can’t wait to see the speedy slugger make those 150 starts in right field this year….