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With an outfield consisting of Carlson, O’Neil, Nootbar, Walker (presumably), Burleson, & Yepez, we have more OF’s than we need. Having the DH helps, but some of those Dh at bats will go to Contreras & others. So how many OF’s do we carry? Who should we keep? And who gets traded to address some of our other needs?
I feel certain that we’ll see the big league debut of Walker. We’d all like to see O’Neil come back healthy & return to ’21 form. But Carlson struggled. Nootbar has a great arm & solid defense but doesn’t hit for high average. Yepez has the potential of a big bat but is a huge defensive liability. Burleson has too small a sample size to be certain of anything yet.
It feels like we have a lot of OF ?’s with boom or bust potential. I could get excited about this group if everything breaks the right way. But how often does that happen? I wouldn’t mind seeing us trade away a couple of Of to bring back a quality starter who would be under team control for a year or two past ’23.
Wait and see. A player(s) will show up at Spring Training in February ALREADY INJURED or will get hurt early in Spring Training.
Just you wait and see……
r/Esteemed Rat
And who gets traded to address some of our other needs?
I wouldn’t mind seeing us trade away a couple of Of to bring back a quality starter who would be under team control for a year or two past ’23.
If anyone gets traded, it’s not going to be to get an outfielder with less team control, it’s going to be to address needs (pitching).
I misread what you are stating.
I believe Yepez gets traded because he has negative defensive value and is right-handed. By himself, he cannot bring back a starting pitcher. Probably package with two prospects not in our Top 5, or traded for a reliever.
Burleson is the LH bat the Cardinals were supposedly seeking.
I hope there in open competition for outfield jobs. Carlson and Nootbaar have much to improve. I’Neill has the best MLB HISTORY, but also is off injured.
Carlson and Nootbaar have much to improve.
By wRC+ Nootbaar was 25% better than league average last year and by OPS+ he was 26%.
Nootbaar was 21st in batting average among right fielders at .229. That doesn’t need improved on? I see potential if he can hit at least .250, which would likely increase his OBP and Ops.
We have a similar glut at middle infield with Edman, Donovan, Gorman and DeJong, with Winn maybe a year away.
First, we can assume that Walker was off limits this winter. Among the other OF, Noot was the hot commodity teams wanted in exchange for their catcher. And among IF it was Donovan. In assessing the future trajectory of the young players we should pay a lot of attention to that assessment coming from outside observers.
Other potential angles.
1) Guys with less track record haven’t had time to regress. New guys are hot. Guys with ups and downs like Carlson and O’Neill might have been as hot after a good first year, but less so now.
Yet at mid-season, supposedly Carlson was the guy the Nats wanted for the big fish Soto and StL wouldn’t include him.
2) Guys with less than one year of service will have several more controllable years at lower salaries than guys with 2-3 years of MLB service (Carlson) or over four years (O’Neill). For a rebuilding team, this really matters.
3) Guys who the Cards say could be available get more rumor mill attention than guys who are said to not be available.
What I am trying to say is that there are many possible interpretations. Who’s to know which one(s) are accurate?
Barring a FA signing or trade, right now it’s O’Neill, Carlson, Nootbaar, Yepez, and Burleson. Over the course of the season, we might see Gomez, Walker, and Antico.
We do not have too many OFer’s. Yepez is not a good defensive player anywhere…I would trade him as he has a good bat but Contreras makes him redundant as an RH DH.
In Contreras four full seasons (excluding his debut season and 2020) he has averaged 100 games started at catcher. If we want him in the lineup the other two months, DH is the likely landing spot, much like last season.
Brian Jordan hit .227 in his first half season or so stint with St. Louis. I believe that was in 1992. He became a pretty good player. Hopefully Nootbaar will be like Jordan.
With this kind of depth it looks like we’re going to have platoon situations, or more likely we’ll be playing matchups in the outfield unless or until somebody emerges as dominant & claims the spot once & for all. But with so many young guys (Nootbar, Carlson, Burleson, & Walker) it’s going to be hard to get them all consistent enough at bats for them to get & stay hot.
I would like to see Yepez traded.
Miami needs bats. Maybe he can be traded for a AA pitcher or as part of a package for Edward Cabrera.
The 2023 Memphis OF also looks packed
Walker
Gomez
Hurst
Mercado
Kaperniak
Pinder
Toerner (my guess is that he becomes a roster casulty)Antico knocking on the door
Wouldn’t be great if longtime Card organization hand Oscar Mercado has a renaissance in ’23. Not likely but it could happen…. he’d have to be hitting a ton. Its possible that he may be the next up early in the season if a spot becomes available (injury). The others are still lacking AAA time or career AAAAers.
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