St. Louis Cardinals’ Rumors: Nick Ahmed in Consideration for Shortstop Relief

The St. Louis Cardinals have been linked to another shortstop outside the organization. This time they are linked with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals have been linked together for the acquisition of shortstop Nick Ahmed. Ahmed fits the profile of the type of guy the Cardinals are pursuing, a defensive first option, who can fill in as needed on the middle infield particularly at shortstop.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, this acquisition is “not hard to imagine for the right price”, again with the “right price” terminology, meaning that clubs don’t have to move their players right now, and that the Cardinals are going to have to pay up in order to acquire anybody.

While this may not cost the organization any high ranking prospect, it could mean that the club deal from one area of depth to acquire another, meaning the club will be forced to deal from their glut of pitching prospects.

It is not hard to see the Diamondbacks request someone like a Corey Littrell or even an Allen Cordoba on the offensive side of things. For an acquisition like Ahmed this isn’t a bad price, but the Cardinals aren’t getting much more than a defensive shortstop in Ahmed.

Ahmed does have an incredible ability to hit left-handed pitching, but so do Aledmys Diaz and Jedd Gyorko. Much like the Ruben Tejada rumors yesterday, this one sounds like the team is simply looking for a more defensively gifted option as opposed to the more offensively inclined Diaz, Gyorko, and Greg Garcia.

While I can’t blame the team for trying to keep it’s depth, I don’t see this being something they pursue all that hard, especially considering Peralta will be back within 6-8 weeks of Opening Day. The team should be fine to fill the gaps until then, but you never know, and apparently like pitching you can never have enough shortstop options.

Next: Cardinals Have Interest in Ruben Tejada

My hope is that the Cardinals don’t make a Justin Masterson or Brandon Moss type deal for a shortstop by giving up a high potential prospect for someone who won’t play that much that long for the team.