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When you have time, can you add the 2025 draft article links to https://thecardinalnation.com/st-louis-cardinals-draft-history/
They aren’t hard to find using the search bar, but would be helpful to have here.
Thanks for all the great coverage!
Not sure if you’ll take any topic requests for the podcast… This would probably be a topic for an especially slow week, so probably not anytime soon with winter meetings coming up. I’m curious to hear more about your and Kyle’s thoughts on some of the front office moves. In particular some of my observations include:
As far as I can tell, Bloom hasn’t hired anyone who has previously worked for him. I was expecting a lot of former Boston and Tampa folks to follow him into St. Louis. That’s not to say he isn’t familiar at all with any of the hires previously, but does seem to show an extraordinary level of confidence in front office/coaching talent evaluation beyond just player evaluation and/or recognition that he knows what worked in BOS/TB as good as anyone, so makes sense to bring in folks with good understanding of other orgs methods. It seems you both are very impressed with the hires and the balance of internal/external additions vs. clearing house. But are you also surprised it isn’t a bunch of Boston and Tampa guys coming in? Or am I just conditioned to how insular the Cards have been?
With the hires this year seemingly finalized, we’ll go another year without a formal General Manager. I wonder if this is a smart move. This way, the promotion is available if someone else tries to poach one of the assistant gm’s that we wouldn’t want to lose. Or if another executive becomes unexpectedly available (similar to how Bloom did), they could have flexibility to be opportunistic. Do you think one of these is likely or what is your read?
It sounds like all the Roger Dean Stadium plans are moving forward now, but in past, part of issue was the stipulation that Marlins would need to basically do the equivalent upgrades. Now that Miami has Bendix (another former Tampa executive), does this make future improvements/investments easier as theoretically both Bloom and Bendix might value similar technologies/facilities from coming up through Tampa’s system. Also, I haven’t heard anything about if Bloom and Bendix worked together much while in Tampa and if so what their relationship was like or what those projects were.
I’m sure there’s items you both and others have noticed as well. Thanks for any consideration!
All of a sudden, the Peoria team just got interesting to follow. First Ortiz, then all the trade acquisitions.
It’s fun to have multiple guys breaking out this year! Last year it was mostly just Crooks that I followed.
I think I would push Bernal ahead of Crooks. The age is the biggest differentiator for me. It doesn’t hurt that Bernal is performing better now too, at least by wRC+.
I might also push Joshua Baez ahead of Chase Davis already. Baez looks like the real deal–he’s already made a few adjustments to AA pitching and, again, the age. I hope Davis can finish strong but the progress from last year hasn’t seemed to carry over. I get not doing so (yet) as you already have Baez making a huge jump.
Not super related to what you asked, but I am curious if we will see quick promotions from AA to AAA with the new development team. I remember you and others have shared in the past the org’s desire to keep hitters in AA for as much of a full season as possible so they face the same competition again and again, forcing the hitters to make adjustments as pitchers face them a number of times. Also it seems the “jump” from AA to AAA is “bigger” now than it has been in the past, so maybe doing well in AA doesn’t signal being as near-MLB ready as it did in the past.
It’s also been cool seeing Nathan Church go from a Scott Hurst-esque defense only guy into a potential real future contributor.
Hopefully the pitching gets healthy and makes next month even tougher to rank.
Despite them being two of the Cards’ biggest power hitters, count me in the crowd for trading O’Neill and Gorman.
It seems like they might have gotten lucky with the Palacios pickup. I was really hoping he’d go to driveline, which already happened. It would be great to see him in Jupiter early for some infield work with Oquendo. Cleveland moved him from 2B to OF after 2021. It would be great to see if he could play as needed at 2B in more of a utility role next year. I’m really curious if he would be better defensively at 2B (or at least better than Donovan) because his fielding metrics in the OF aren’t great.
2B, LF, CF could be some form of rotation between Edman, Donovan, Nootbaar, and Palacios with Edman and Winn also splitting time at SS.
A big question for me is whether they decide to hold on to Carlson in hope for health and the long-awaited breakout or move on from Dylan and trust that Palacios is amid a Nootbaar-esque breakout himself. If he can keep some of the power gains, his batting profile could look like something approaching a lefty swinging Marcus Semien (who also put it all together at a little later of an age) minus the speed and defense.
I was just looking at the updated list and am sort of surprised Victor Scott II hasn’t gotten more attention yet.
He only had a partial season as a 2022 draftee. In 142 PA’s in A ball, he posted a 115 wRC+ (Fangraphs) which is confirmed in a sense by the 116 DRC+ (Baseball Prospectus). Supposedly his speed is top-notch (13 SB, 3 CS), which means he could be a potentially plus fielder too. His plate discipline also stands out with a ridiculous 16.9% BB% and solid 18.3% K%.
He has some similarities to Mike Antico, but is much younger and probably has a higher ceiling. He should be fun to see more of next year.
For me it’s more interesting to think of a sort of playing time chart. Oli seems pretty adept at playing matchups, not just straight platoons, whether they are based on stats or maintaining health with occasional rest.
This is all barring any future trades or injuries:
I could see 4 “everyday” outfielders, with each of O’Neill, Nootbaar, Carlson, and Burleson getting every ~fourth game off, or phrased another way, being a late-game matchup option every ~fourth game. (~500 PA each)
Edman gets about 10 days off (~600 PA). DeJong plays those 10 games and is a rarely used bench bat/defensive replacement at 2B.
Goldschmidt and Arenado get about 10 days off each with occasional DH days (~630 PA each). Their off days go to the guys in the rotation below.
2B and DH, along with the 20 CI games Goldschmidt and Arenado get off, are a semi-balanced rotation between Donovan, Gorman, and Yepez. (~480 PA each, likely not evenly distributed). DeJong maybe gets a handful of PA’s here too.
Plan to ride Contreras hard at C (~450 PA) with Knizner getting a healthy dose of PA’s.
Divvying up the playing time this way means there would be several different “regular” lineups, not just one. Only having one lineup with this type of a roster makes it seem like anyone not included is excess/wasted, but that’s clearly not the case.
This also goes to show that it only takes one OF injury to open significant playing time for Walker. Likewise one non-Edman IF/DH injury opens up more PA’s at DH for Contreras and any/all of Donovan, Gorman, Yepez, and the OF’s.
I’m all for trading for a rotation upgrade, if one is available, but the depth on the position player side can get diminished pretty quickly with any injuries if we trade more than one of these guys. Aiming for this kind of a distribution can also theoretically help maximize everyone’s trade value if eventually they do need to trade from this depth. Each player’s value as a proven major leaguer will be greater than it would be as a good prospect who has yet-to-prove themselves in the majors (where Gorman, Burleson, and Yepez find themselves now). They might need these kinds of players with established value to trade for SP at the deadline or next off-season.
I thought it was interesting that it seemed the Cards might have been open to trading Donovan and if they did so, possibly signing a SS like Swanson. If that was how that chain of events would have played out, it would seem that trading Donovan is now off the table as they likely wouldn’t have the cash to sign a MI like Swanson to replace him with a big chunk of that money going to Contreras.
If they do trade from the MLB depth, it would seem likely to be among the outfield/dh candidates. Trading from that depth to add a SP, shouldn’t require a second move to add another OF to the organization. For what it’s worth, I don’t get the talk about adding a veteran lefthanded bat with pop. Conforto and Gallo I guess could fit that description, but I’m skeptical that would be the move, even if both are looking for a 1-2 year deal.
Of course, I want the satisfaction of the roster being seemingly set as soon as possible, but I wonder if this all could even drag out to toward the end of spring training?
There will be plenty of extra playing time for the low/no service time guys (Burleson, Walker, Winn, Gorman, Herrera) due to the WBC. This in a way buys the front office time to confirm their evaluations of their own guys and see if anyone made any major developmental gains during the offseason.
Impact trades can still happen in spring training and I don’t think it’s malpractice to send a few guys back to AAA, even if it is unsatisfying. (I’m open to Walker making the opening day roster, but make him force his way onto it. I’m also okay with keeping Herrera and Winn in AAA all year ala Burleson this year, though I don’t think they will force the issue as much as he did).
Part of the reason why Nootbaar and Donovan have so much trade value right now is because they got a chance to show they can hit really well in the majors. You might remember that Nootbaar had been floated by some in the media as a buy-low (or buy-early) trade candidate last offseason because he was blocked by O’Neill and Carlson in the corners. Likewise, many were clamoring for Donovan to make the opening day roster after an impressive spring training. I think we’re all glad they didn’t trade away Nootbaar last offseason and despite starting the year at AAA Donovan still ended up with nearly a full season of plate appearances in the majors.
I agree that long-term there is a log jam at OF/DH, and it has to be resolved somehow (by injury or by trade) but Gorman and Burleson could do just as much in a year to boost their values like Nootbaar and Donovan did. If O’Neill has a strong spring, does that increase his value enough that it doesn’t feel like selling low on him? Does it make sense to see how Carlson’s wrist is holding up in a few games before deciding on the preferred alignment?
The Astros have emerged as a potential suitor for Sean Murphy, per source. Houston currently has Martin Maldonado as its catcher and has been connected to free agent Willson Contreras. Murphy, a former Gold Glove winner, is under club control through 2025.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 6, 2022
Now the Astros’ are supposedly interested again. Murphy would be a valuable addition to all but maybe five teams. Hopefully this is more along the lines of the Atlanta rumor last night that was quickly squashed.
I was curious how a “bidding war” might play out amongst the Guardians, Rays, and Cardinals–who can all be considered among the most disciplined teams in sticking to their player valuations. It’s not surprising that the answer is to throw more teams into the mix.
I agree, I’d prefer not to give up Winn for Murphy, but if it’s the only way a Murphy trade happens, I might do it.
Thinking about it a little more, the SS signing would make a little more sense if Donovan is included than if Winn is. I read somewhere that Oakland is interested in high contact guys. Donovan’s trade value is higher than I expected, partly because he has six more years of team control (I thought he had a full year of service time this year, but that wasn’t the case as his callup came 2-3 weeks into the season).
If Cards trade Donovan, adding a reliable 2B (or SS and moving Edman back to 2B) becomes a priority. If they keep Donovan and trade Winn, they could just play Donovan at 2B this year and hold off on another middle infield addition for another year or two.
I don’t think anyone posted this yet. Goold tweeted that Cards interest in SS market would be in correlation with a trade with Oakland for Murphy.
There is a series of events where the #stlcards trade for a catcher — Oakland's Sean Murphy is atop their list, two sources confirm — and find themselves then exploring free agents, possibly at shortstop. That is where any interest in Dansby Swanson has its roots, per source.
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) December 6, 2022
To me this seems to suggest that Winn and/or Donovan would be part of the package going to Oakland. I don’t see them pushing for Edman as part of the package.
Regardless your take on Swanson, it would seem to be a clear win-now move, in my opinion.
I just made a post on another thread using the steamer projections to generate a projected WAR/600. Thought this was worth adding in here as well including Reynolds.
Nootbaar – 3.77 WAR/600
Reynolds – 3.56 WAR/600
Carlson – 3.42 WAR/600
O’Neill – 2.89 WAR/600
Burleson – 2.79 WAR/600If you have to give up Carlson to get Reynolds, I might rather just keep Carlson.
The Steamer projections have been available on FanGraphs and it shows how stacked we are with solid options. I pulled some projected stats for players that could see significant time in the outfield dh, or at 2b.
Below are the rate Steamer projections, sorted by wRC+.
Nootbaar – .247/.344/.444, .788 OPS, .197 ISO, 12.1 BB%, 21.1 K%, 126 wRC+
Yepez – .251/.314/.470, .783 OPS, .219 ISO, 7.5 BB%, 21.7 K%, 122 wRC+
Donovan – .270/.363/.393, .756 OPS, .123 ISO, 11.0 BB%, 15.9 K%, 121 wRC+
O’Neill – .243/.315/.448, .763 OPS, .205 ISO, 8.2 BB%, 28.2 K%, 118 wRC+
Burleson – .273/.321/.446, .767 OPS, .173 ISO, 5.8 BB%, 16.3 K%, 118 wRC+
Carlson – .253/.332/.417, .749 OPS, .164 ISO, 9.4 BB%, 19.4 K%, 115 wRC+
Walker – .258/.318/.427, .745 OPS, .169 ISO, 7.3 BB%, 23.4 K%, 113 wRC+
Gomez – .230/.293/.454, .748 OPS, .224 ISO, 7.6 BB%, 33.8 K%, 111 wRC+
Gorman – .239/.299/.440, .739 OPS, .201 ISO, 7.2 BB%, 28.5 K%, 110 wRC+What stands out to me:
For median projections, these seem to be really strong overall. We should feel good about having nine players who project at 10% or more above average by wRC+ to throw at essentially 5 positions (3 OF, DH, and 2B).
Nootbaar has the best overall projection on a rate basis. I would have expected O’Neill, who places in the middle of the pack to be closer to the top.
Donovan has the highest on base percentage, leading Nootbaar by a good margin.
Burleson has the highest batting average projection, narrowly topping Donovan. On a rate basis Burleson’s projection is almost identical to O’Neill’s.
Walker’s rate projections are almost identical to Carlson’s.
Gomez has the best projected isolated power, narrowly topping Yepez. Both of them are handily ahead of O’Neill and Gorman, each who clear the .200 mark, with Nootbaar falling just below it.Now here are the plate appearances and WAR projected by Steamer, sorted by WAR. I’ve also added a WAR/600 with a ranking for the full-season equivalent rate.
Donovan – 528 PA, 2.9 WAR | 3.3 WAR/600; 3rd
Carlson – 509 PA, 2.9 WAR | 3.4 WAR/600; 2nd
Nootbaar – 446 PA, 2.8 WAR | 3.8 WAR/600; 1st
O’Neill – 539 PA, 2.6 WAR | 2.9 WAR/600; 4th
Walker – 440 PA, 1.5 WAR | 2.0 WAR/600; 7th-t
Gorman – 389 PA, 1.5 WAR | 2.3 WAR/600; 6th
Yepez – 359 PA, 1.2 WAR | 2.0 WAR/600; 7th-t
Burleson – 86 PA, 0.4 WAR | 2.8 WAR/600; 5th
Gomez – 1 PA, 0.0 WAR | n/aWhat stands out to me:
The base running, defense, and positional adjustment give Carlson a nice boost into a tie for best overall in WAR and second in WAR/600.
If Burleson plays as well as he projects, he needs to get more playing time than is projected.
Despite the lower than I expected rate projections for O’Neill, he projects for the most plate appearances using this model.Hopefully the Cardinals’ ZiPS will be posted soon too.
Competitive balance picks announced for 2023. St. Louis not included.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-draft-competitive-balance-rounds-set-2023If no extensions are signed before the end of next year, the Cardinals could potentially be in a position to make qualifying offers to Mikolas, Flaherty, and/or Montgomery. It would be tough to lose all/any of them but this looks like a more likely path to extra picks in the 2024 draft than a competitive balance pick.
I think it’s also important to consider Spencer Torkelson’s season, which is an example in the opposite direction. He was a pre-season ROY favorite and consensus top 100 prospect. He fell way short of expectations and ended up getting demoted for around a month and a half in mid-July. Thus, he finished the year with 137 days of service time. He’ll likely be super 2 eligible with an extra/early year of arbitration, but the Tigers will retain the extra year of control now. I think one can argue that with only around 500 career MiLB PA’s that he was rushed. But this is likely more the benefit of hindsight.
Also of consideration is the case of Julio Rodriguez, who skipped AAA entirely (and only had 206 PA in each A+ and AA) but nonetheless went on to win ROY. My understanding is that Rodriguez should net the Mariners an extra amateur draft pick after the first round. He won the roster spot in spring training, which from what I recall, it seemed the Mariner’s were hoping he would do.
It’s entirely possible that Walker could go either of these routes (Rutschman, Torkelson, or Rodriguez). They all represent different pros and cons. It’s also worth saying that probably the most likely scenario in terms of pure odds is that if you call up Walker on opening day, he plays adequately enough to stay on the team but not good enough to finish as ROY winner (so doesn’t net a draft pick) or bad enough to be demoted (to secure extra year of control).
The tricky situation for the Cardinals, as opposed to SEA, BAL, DET is that they are building a team that is expected to compete for the division title from the get go. In terms of roster construction, this is a little bit more of a challenging situation to be in as they want to have their roster pretty settled going into spring training. Of course they can make trades later, if necessary, but for me, I’m curious if they are willing to build their roster for next year around the hope/expectation that Walker is indeed ready to be the starting RF on opening day.
Is there any way to know if the Cardinals have a chance of getting added back to the competitive balance pool this year? It seems like maybe STL has outgrown other TV markets. I don’t think there were any changes to this in the new CBA, but some of the changes are hard to know the details of.
Also, before I forget… Dan O’Dowd closed the Fall Stars Game broadcast with a prediction that Jordan Walker is the opening day RF in STL in 2023. He’s convinced Walker is ready.
Gomez will be an interesting decision. Of course it makes sense to protect the best players. I think it makes even more sense to add/protect Gomez if they are intending to trade O’Neill and/or Yepez.
Also interesting to me in this is remembering last year when they let Plummer become a FA. Gomez has basically the opposite profile (righty vs. lefty, power vs. on-base), and I think is a little younger. And in hindsight, no one’s still complaining about Plummer. Maybe there was no worthwhile exchange value for him.
Thanks, jj. For O’Neill’s WAR/600, I was only looking at the last two seasons (2021 and 2022), not his career numbers. This was intentional as it gives O’Neill a “better” sample, even if it includes this year’s clunker.
And about the ceiling…
I just ran some of these numbers out of curiosity. All from Fangraphs. Here is the half-season and 1+ month peak performance that O’Neill and Nootbaar have each hit so far. (I admit, it doesn’t mean that it is more or less replicable for either of them. And I would much rather rely on x stats than babip for an educated guess there.)
“Half-Season Peak”*
O’Neill | 2021 2nd Half | Age 26 | 285 PA | .296/.368/.573 | .941 OPS | 152 wRC+ | 3.3 WAR
Nootbaar | 2022 July-EOS | Age 24 | 270 PA | .253/.374/.507 | .881 OPS | 149 wRC+ | 2.9 WAR
*(I included all of Nootbaar’s July in part to even out the play appearances and in part because it brings the overall numbers closer as his breakout essentially started the week before the all-star game.)“1-month+ Peak”*
O’Neill | 2021 Sept/Oct | Age 26 | 130 PA | .328/.377/.731 | 1.108 OPS | 190 wRC+ | 2.2 WAR
Nootbaar | 2022 Jul/Aug | Age 24 | 171 PA ! .294/471/.574 | .995 OPS | 179 wRC+ | 2.5 WAR
*(Nootbaar’s July and August were equally good, so I combined both so the PA’s are a little closer, or rather, favor Nootbaar this time.)By wRC+ they are both close to identical, indeed with O’Neill topping Nootbaar slightly. Of course O’Neill has shown more power, but Nootbaar’s on-base ability also might be of a unicorn variety. Thus the similarities I see between Nootbaar and good Matt Carpenter.
Interestingly, despite some of the overall similarities between these samples, O’Neill’s WAR ranking among hitters for the time periods selected were higher than Nootbaar’s. O’Neill’s 2021 second half ranked #6 and his 2021 Sept/Oct ranked #2. Nootbaar’s 2022 July-EOS ranked #24 and his 2022 Jul/Aug ranked #13. The “MVP-Caliber” moniker definitely goes to O’Neill in this case.
It can be argued that they have to-date displayed roughly the same ceiling when it comes to actual production. Is it more or less likely for either of them to reach it again? I don’t know. Given how wild O’Neill’s power numbers were and how high his K’s (over 30% in both samples), there’s space for some doubt there. But it helps that he more or less sustained a pace just below this when taking the full 2021 season into account. To the babip point, O’Neill’s was always higher (.389 half season and .388 1-month) than Nootbaar (.265 half-season and .308 1-month). For Nootbaar, I’m not sure what his numbers are against the shift vs. no shift, but if the shift ban opens up the right side of the infield a little more for him, maybe there is even a little space for him to grow or a higher chance of him re-reaching this to-date production ceiling.
Regardless, it is a good “problem” to have, assuming the Cardinals would even be looking to move one of them.
Also, it seems that Brandon Allen was the hitting coach in Springfield during Carlson’s breakout, so perhaps there is some chance that he can “unlock” Carlson again.
True. I don’t have any issue with starting O’Neill in LF, Noot in RF, and Walker in AAA and when he’s ready one of them can slot into DH. You could have all three in the lineup together. I’m starting to think maybe Walker does come straight to STL next year. Then if they keep Gorman too, he’d have to cut it at 2b rather than dh–unless Walker goes to CF and pushes Carlson out of the picture.
I feel like that Bader-Montgomery trade was so rare that you can’t rely on being able to do that kind of a swap mid-season again because only teams in the playoff picture are going to be trading for a player like O’Neill, especially if O’Neill is putting up numbers near his MVP-level ceiling again. But they are going to want to trade prospects, which probably won’t be what the Cards are looking for mid-season if they are also in the playoff picture.
IMO if the Cardinals keep O’Neill and trade him mid-season or at the 2023 deadline, that probably means O’Neill fell somewhat flat again or the 2023 Cardinals fell flat and are sellers. If the Cards get experienced talent in return for him, it makes sense to do this in the offseason so the other team, likely a contender (especially given he has only 2 more years of control), has the rest of the offseason to sign a quality replacement player, likely a free agent, for whatever position(s) the guys play that they send to the Cards. Otherwise they would have to be in a similar position of having a top prospect that they trust to step right into what ever hole is created mid-season. Although it may feel like selling low, I’m guessing it would still be more valuable to sell him now than with one less year of control.
And while I sure would have liked to have peak O’Neill last year, especially on the playoff roster against Philly, we know this team can win the division with less production from LF than what I think either Nootbaar’s or Walker’s floor would be.
Thanks. Another way to look at it is WAR per 600 PA for the past two years. O’Neill has more playing time with 920 PA to Nootbaar’s 471. I think we would all say they both had some great stretches and some poor stretches during these PA’s.
Equalizing these out to a rate stat with fangraphs fWAR, I think Nootbaar comes in at 4.2 WAR/600 and O’Neill comes in at 4.5 WAR/600. A lot closer than I was expecting. Using Baseball Reference bWAR, it is a bit more lopsided with Nootbaar around 3.7 WAR/600 and O’Neill about 5.2 WAR/600.
Those, like me, who believe in Nootbaar, see him as pretty close in rate production to O’Neill in about half the opportunity. It’s worth noting that this is essentially rookie Noot compared to a somewhat seasoned TON. I think the team would regret trading Nootbaar more than O’Neill.
One thing to consider with whether Walker starts the year in STL is the new collective bargaining agreement. If he finishes top 2 in rookie of the year, he gets a full year of service regardless. The other (and more intriguing to me) item is the draft pick compensation. This one there is less public consensus of what the actual wording is.
Supposedly if a player with less than 60 days of service time and who is on at least two top 100 lists (Baseball America, ESPN, MLB) stays on the MLB roster all year (so theoretically this might apply to Burleson too), the team can earn an additional amateur draft pick at the end of the first round. The most “realistic” one is to win the rookie of the year voting (I’ve also seen top 3 ROY finish, which would be a little more realistic, but I’m not sure about the CBA wording). They can also trigger a bonus draft pick, if they place in the top 3 in MVP or Cy Young voting any year before they are eligible for arbitration. Any player can only generate one pick for their team (so if someone went supernova and won ROY then placed in MVP/CY in subsequent years, they would still only generate one total draft pick, not one each year is my understanding).
So, if you think Walker might be ready, and you value these extra picks (especially as the Cards don’t seem to be included in the competitive balance pool any more), it makes sense to start Walker in STL in hopes that he takes off. If he really struggles, you can always send him down later in the year, which would mean that he wouldn’t reach a full year of service time anyway. (Sending him down if he struggles would disqualify him from getting a draft pick if he would finish in top 3 mvp voting in any subsequent pre-arbitration year, but I think that is a pretty unrealistic expectation).
The way it seems this “Prospect Promotion Incentive” is designed will actually only impact very few players. Perhaps that now that there is precedent, it could be expanded in future CBAs.
Anyhow, there’s a lot we probably still need to learn about the new CBA, but this is another lens to look at the Walker to STL decision.
The more I think about it, the more I think that they are more likely to trade O’Neill than Nootbaar. They need to keep some lefty hitters around. Other than Yepez, most of the “trade candidates” mentioned above are all the lefties on the team.
Sure it will be slightly frustrating to presumably sell low on O’Neill, but Nootbaar has a better track record of health, is cheaper, and is under team control for longer. Supposedly some in the front office think he has all-star potential (this was said last offseason and I heard repeated somewhere again a time or two during the season). I see a lot of similarities between him and the good version of Matt Carpenter.
If Walker is the long-term RF, I think Nootbaar is the long-term LF.
Maybe I’m overrating the value of handedness, but the top prospects (Walker and Winn) hit right handed and the two switch hitters (Edman, Carlson) seem to be much better as righties than as lefties.
I think they install who they like most between Gorman and Burleson as the primary DH and potentially trade the other. Yepez would basically get relegated to super utility as a convoluted/creative short side platoon plus a little more at dh/cof/cif with Gorman (and occasionally with Nootbaar).
And if the player the Cardinals want to acquire (such as Murphy) is on a rebuilding team, maybe they trade O’Neill to a contender for prospects who could then, with some lesser guys in our system, be flipped for the target. This is one way to try to protect the guys I would consider untouchable like Walker, Winn, Hence, and Graceffo.
