The St. Louis Cardinals’ All-Time 28-Man Roster

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Bench Spot #1 – OF Joe Medwick

When you think about what you want off the bench. You want a mixture of pop, contact, and the ability to get on base at a consistent rate. You’d prefer your OF to be able to play all three spots, but Joe Medwick is a solid choice here, despite only playing LF for most of his career. He is not likely going to get much time out in RF, as Musial was the Iron Man before Cal Ripken made it cool. However, Medwick will be a solid bat off the bench and will be able to spell Brock out in left.

In his career as a Cardinal, Medwick had the solid and consistent numbers you want out of a corner outfielder in the 30s and 40s not named Stan Musial. Medwick slashed .335/.372/.545, with 610 extra-base hits (377 doubles, 81 triples, and 152 homers) in his career as a Cardinal.

Medwick’s best season as Cardinal came in 1937 when he won the triple crown, practically leading the league in every offensive category. The only categories he didn’t lead the league in that year were stolen bases, OBP, and walks. Medwick was also worth 8.5 WAR that season, again making it one of the better seasons in baseball history. Everything else he was league best that year, earning himself his only MVP award

Medwick was a really good player, just not quite good enough to beat out Brock, but definitely able to platoon a bit to give the bench the speed threat.

Next: Bench Spot #2 - C Ted Simmons