St. Louis Cardinals: Kolten Wong Optioned to AAA Memphis

The St. Louis Cardinals have made a surprising move in sending one of their top players to AAA Memphis to figure things out.

Details are vague right now, but what we know is that the St. Louis Cardinals have made the decision to send Kolten Wong to AAA Memphis and Jhonny Peralta off of the disabled list. This is both a surprising move and an unsurprising move. Wong has had his struggles lately and despite his contract extension from before the season hasn’t been the same guy defensively or offensively that we have seen the past two seasons.

This will give Wong time to work on his swing and hopefully right his stance. Hopefully, Wong takes this as a challenge and a motivation factor as the Cardinals could use the guy they had and the guy they gave the five year extension to.

This has as much to do with Wong’s playing time becoming diminished with Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter getting the time at second once Peralta returns tomorrow. This will give Wong a chance to play every day and work out the kinks and get back to the level of play the organization knows he can play at. 

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Wong is absolutely still a valuable commodity for the Cardinals. He still has the talent which made him a first round draft pick and a quick mover through the Cardinals’ system. So, this is in no way a dooming move for Wong.

I am a big fan of Wong and appreciate how he is one of those guys who takes things to heart and wants to improve and is hard on himself about it. That to me shows that he cares and that he wants to do better.

I think that this will be a wake up call for him and help him realize that he’s got to get better. There’s no room for a player of his caliber to regress in just his third year in the majors.

Next: Kolten Wong needs to readjust his swing/stance

We will work to keep you updated on Wong’s progress down in AAA, as I’m sure Michael Miles will have plenty of updates for us throughout Wong’s stint in Memphis.