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You’d look good in red: Scouting free agents in the LCS
St. Louis Cardinals fans have no dog in this postseason race. The Kansas City Royals? Please. Don Denkinger’s overwrought safe call in the ’85 series will forever be burned in our collective minds. The Chicago Cubs? Seriously? The New York Mets are right up there with Chicago on the despise-o-meter, while the Toronto Blue Jays are from Canada. No, thank you.
What we do have, however, are impending free agents. Good ones. Steven McNeil has thoroughly broken down the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals for you — including the disappointments — so we know where the Cardinals need to improve. Based on that, let’s look at five players we can still watch on TV and dream of being on the Cardinals’ roster next season. It may not happen, but trust me, it’ll help make the postseason go faster.
David Price, LHP
With Lance Lynn and Michael Wacha both disappointing the Cardinal faithful this season, the rotation would get a huge boost from this guy in 2016 Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
A girl can dream, right? The Detroit Tigers had many, many issues this season, but their ace wasn’t one of them. If you strip away factors out of his control, like defense, Price was excellent in the first half. He had an excellent 3.03 Fielding-independent pitching (FIP) mark in his 21 starts for the Motor City Kitties. But, boy, did he boost his already considerable stock after the Tigers shipped him to the Toronto Blue Jays at the July deadline.
In his 11 regular-season starts for the Jays, he averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine and lowered his FIP all the way down to 2.19. That’s Roy-Halladay-in-his-prime territory. Now, in the playoffs, he’s doing nothing to take away from any of that. If all that isn’t enough, he has a really cute dog named Astro, who has his own Twitter account. Sold!
Daniel Murphy, 1B, 2B, 3B
Daniel Murphy lives to win baseball games. Translation: he doesn’t belong with the Mets. He belongs in St. Louis. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Full disclosure: I freaking love Daniel Murphy. I love his tough-as-nails persona. I love the fact that he can play multiple infield positions (first base included). I love the fact that he’s clutch in the postseason. This guy has “Cardinals” written all over him. I know, I know. He is a poor defender. His Fielding Runs Above Average (FRAA) mark was negative for the fourth straight season, meaning his glove costs the Mets runs. I don’t care.
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Here we have a case of a player who could stand to benefit from a change of scenery. A more structured environment in St. Louis could help him work the kinks out of his glove work. Collaborating with new coaches could help him finally turn that line-drive swing of his into the power stroke it should have been all along. But you know why he really needs to escape from New York? The Wilpons don’t deserve a player who wants to win as badly as Murphy does. The Cardinals do.
Juan Uribe, IF
Juan Uribe is the kind of player the Cardinals need on their roster. Psych! Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Wait, what? How did this guy get on this list? For years, Uribe has traded on his long-dormant clutch postseason hitting and the fact that he is “good for the Latino players in the clubhouse.” What the @#$%! does that mean? When he was in L.A., perpetual underachiever Hanley Ramirez used to prank him constantly. Then fellow Dodger underachiever Yasiel Puig would lose hundreds (maybe thousands?) of dollars to Uribe in games of dominos.
So that makes him a good clubhouse guy for the Latino players? Sure. He was a negative WAR player before the Dodgers finally traded him this year. They can have him back for all I care. Next …
Ben Zobrist, IF/OF
Ben Zobrist is a Cardinal kind of player. Admit it. You’d love to see him in red, too. Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Zobrist is another player who fits the Cardinal mold. Selfless. Versatile. Consistent. And now, definitely on the decline, which means the Cards may have a shot at him in free agency. Zobrist has long been a plus defender no matter where he’s played, but his FRAA this season was in the negative before and after the Oakland Athletics shipped him to the Royals. He won’t hit 20 homers anymore, either. The last time he did that was 2012. That said, he’ll still hit around .280 and smack a ton of doubles for you. He had 36 this year, which helps explain his OPS of better than .800.
A lot of veterans like Zobrist get to St. Louis and experience a rebirth. Remember Lance Berkman after languishing in Houston all those years? How about Carlos Beltran escaping from his own personal purgatory in New York (after a nice little post-trade-dealine run in San Francisco)? Zobrist could be that guy, but the Cardinals will have plenty of competition for him. Here’s hoping Cardinals’ GM John Mozeliak has the budget to do it.
Yeonis Cespedes, OF
Yoenis Cespedes watches the ball go, and with it any chance of the Cardinals signing him. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports
Dare to dream. Like Price, Cespedes will be priced way, way out of Mozeliak’s budget. And he should be. Because unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last three months, you know how much the Cuban outfielder has meant to the Mets’ postseason run. It took him half the games he played in Detroit to slug nearly as many dingers for the Mets (17 vs. 18 for the Tigers).
He’s a plus defender with a highlight-reel arm that produced 13 assists this year, sixth most in baseball. Cespedes has crushed naysayers twice now. First, when the A’s signed him for big money back in 2012 without knowing much about him.
Other than he has big muscles and likes to host family barbecues, per YouTube. And now, again, as a Met, Cespedes has made the Met faithful forget all about erstwhile Brewer centerfielder Carlos Gomez, the one who got away at the deadline (allegedly). Alas, richer teams will likely step in and throw money at Cespedes like NBAers at a strip club. Dolla dolla bills y’all.
Alex Gordon, LF
Alex Gordon is one guy who would make me feel just fine about Jason Heyward skipping town. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Gordon has a $12.5MM player option but looks intent on testing the waters. Good. He should, because oh what a player. It almost seems quaint now that Gordon was once an uber prospect at third base who the Royals pushed too quickly through the system until he struggled mightily in the bigs.
Remember? He was supposed to be the Royals’ savior when he came up in 2007, but hit just .247. Kansas City moved him to the outfield, almost in desperation. And now, he’s a four-time Gold Glover, a perennial All-Star and a lynchpin in that Royals order. Entering this year, he was one of only five players to produce a WARP of four or better for four straight years.
A groin injury this year ended that run, but it only made the Royals realize how important he was to them. Gordon still finished the season a 2.9 WARP player. Imagine what he could do in St. Louis. It kind of makes you shiver, right?
Next: Five takeaways following the Cardinals' early postseason exit