2015 St. Louis Cardinals’ Season Review: Disappointments

Aug 28, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left fielder

(21) walks off the field after hitting into a double play in the ninth inning to retire the side during their MLB baseball game with the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports. Giants won 5-4

4. Brandon Moss

Where do I start?

I will finally admit it, this trade was bad, and in many different ways. Moss coming into the trade was hitting an abysmal .217 with 33 extra-base hits (17 doubles, 15 homers, one triple) all while driving in 50. Seemed like an easy low level prospect for a hitter who get hot type of trade, right? No. John Mozeliak decided that he was going to pay the steep price the Indians wanted for Moss and give them Rob Kaminsky who was one of the top prospects in the Cardinals’ system.

At the time, I thought “eh, Kaminsky won’t get a shot for a while anyways, let’s give Moss a shot here, maybe he’ll give us a boost in power”. Moss, in 52 games had a .248 average with just four homers and seven doubles with the Cardinals. Not what you would think you were going to be getting from a “power hitter”.

We heard the talk about how Moss had a hip issue, that he was going to need a full offseason of rest to get through and how Moss was so versatile. Bottom line, Moss did not perform the way he needed to for this team to even became a regular contributor. He was rarely used late in the season, as Holliday and Adams returned from injury and Mark Reynolds had more success than Moss.

Moss, does have another year left before he can hit free agency, so it will be intriguing to see what he can add next season. If Moss can pop 10-15 homers off of the bench next season and hit .250-.260, I’d be happy. Not happy enough that I’ll forget about the fact that we gave up a stud pitching prospect for him but happy that he did something, as opposed to doing nothing.