Cardinals have questions to answer with outfielder Jon Jay

Something I’ve been pondering lately is the future of Jon Jay with the St. Louis Cardinals.

My lovely wife and I have debated the topic more than once and since she is practically president of the Jay fan club, he has been bugging me all year about why he hasn’t got the chance to play. I have had to explain to her that his wrist injury is pretty serious and it takes a player a long time to recover from this type of issue.

With that thought, I want to go ahead and examine whether or not there is room for a player like Jay on this team.

Let’s face it, with that wrist injury and the mindset of this team moving forward, he simply is not going to hit for power. That is a bit of a problem for his chances of being a starter, considering what Randal Grichuk is offering the team right now.

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However, maybe the ideal role for him is not to be a starter for the Cardinals or any other team for that matter.

Maybe Jay is not more well-suited to be the fifth outfielder that doesn’t get many starts and serves as a left-handed bat off the bench. Given there is not much in terms of big league-ready center fielders in the system right now, I think this is a real possibility.

Why, you may ask?

Looking at his numbers in five seasons in the Majors, Jay has only once had an OBP lower than .350 and that was in 2011 when he came in at .344. As a fan, I was not very impressed with the overall numbers of Tommy Pham while he was up and I am not quite sure he has what it takes to be a cog on this team moving forward.

For whatever reason, Mike Matheny still seems to have something against giving Peter Boujros a decent shot to be a key player on this club. With that in mind, I look for the Cardinals to shop the speedster this offseason – especially with the fact that Stephen Piscotty seems to have the fourth outfielder role locked up.

Unless the Cardinals (miraculously) find a very good left-handed center field bat in free agency to back up Grichuk, Jay really does seem to be the best option in terms of a backup outfielder.

I would expect the Jay we’ve all come to know and love to be back after he has another offseason to rest and rehab the surgically-repaired wrist some more.

It will be intriguing for sure to see if Jon Jay comes back this season and how he fits in down the stretch with the emergence of Piscotty and Grichuk and expected return of Holliday at some point.

The book for next year, however, remains to be written – as does Jay’s role with the Cardinals.

Next: Lyons promoted, but at what cost to St. Louis?