Matt Holliday: Older, But Better?

What is the old expression? You’re not getting older, you’re getting better?

That could apply to Matt Holliday right about now.

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder is batting .387 this spring, his hottest March since a .383 mark back in 2012.

So what is making Holliday so hot right about now? How about a desire to show off his skills and avoid the injury bug?

Holliday has only played 15 games this spring because of abdominal issues that hampered his early weeks in camp. With the abdominal strain behind him, Holliday is making up for lost time.

It could also be because Holliday wants to show how much St. Louis means to him. Team president Bill DeWitt Jr. intends to exercise Holliday’s 2017 option, which would pay him $17 million.

Will Holliday be worth it at that point? Holliday’s average of .272 is the worst average he had in his career, which dates back to 2006 with the Colorado Rockies. Still, Holliday had 156 hits last year, which equaled his total of a year ago. He also had 20 homers or more for the ninth year in a row.

Along with  Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter, Jason Heyward and Kolten Wong, these players will form the offense in St. Louis this year. The team can’t afford to have a power outage from Holliday.

It looks like the team won’t have to worry.