St. Louis Cardinals: Time to Say Goodbye to Tommy Pham and Jose Martinez?

As spring training draws to a close, the St. Louis Cardinals will have to decide between keeping Tommy Pham or Jose Martinez on the roster. Would it be better if the decision was to say goodbye to them both?

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to kick off the 2017 season one week from this coming Sunday. Thank goodness, right? At that time, the organization will need to make a decision on whether to keep Tommy Pham or Jose Martinez as the fourth outfielder.

We at Redbird Rants have written much about the fourth outfielder battle. I personally have examined the internal options and have gone so far as to compare the likes of Pham to Martinez and even now-snooze-fest Todd Cunningham. At the end of the day, the St. Louis Cardinals will need to make a decision.

Today, my cousin- who has spurred many article ideas for me- sent me a text asking who I would keep on the roster between Pham and Martinez. While I voted for Martinez, he voted for Pham. According to him, Martinez is this year’s Jeremy Hazelbaker. According to him, Pham is the better choice to make the roster because he has proven he can hit MLB pitchers and can play center.

Let’s take a quick minute to jump out and review the spring stats at the conclusion of today’s game. At the conclusion of today’s game, Jose Martinez has appeared in forty at-bats and owns a slash of .400/.510/.825. At the conclusion of today’s game, Pham has appeared in thirty-nine at-bats and owns a slash of .231/.348/.308.

Pham has proven he can hit MLB pitching? Really?

Look, I’ll be honest that I’m a big Jose Martinez fan. I like him in the outfield and prefer him over Pham. I like that he can play first base while Pham cannot. True, Pham is far more likely to backup center (while Martinez is not so likely to do so), but don’t we have Randal Grichuk on the squad to spell that backup?

Here’s the real shocker: if it were left to me, I would prefer that these bodies left for other pastures in exchange for some proven talent. I use this phrase purposefully. Proven talent is not something that I would ascribe to either of these players.

I think that Pham has proven that he is almost a proven defender in the outfield but I’m not convinced he is a proven batter. I think that Martinez has proven that he is almost a proven bat at the plate, but I’m not convinced he is a proven defender. By the way, this paragraph has been brought to you by the “proven” department.

So here’s my assertion: would the St. Louis Cardinals be better-suited if they had a different name as the fourth outfielder? Would someone like Angel Pagan (not yet on a team for 2017) be a better name for this role?