St. Louis Cardinals: Leadoff options are tricky

If the St. Louis Cardinals are going to replace Matt Carpenter at the top of the order, unconventional methods will be required.

The winter wait has come and gone. Yoenis Cespedes won’t be a St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder folks, so let’s think about what the Birds have and not what may still lurk on the menu. In order to generate more offense, the Cardinals may have to shift their player with the top OPS(Matt Carpenter) out of the leadoff spot.

That’s not an easy task and only works in a vacuum styled conversation. In reality, the reasons to not move Matt Carpenter from the leadoff are simple. He’s very good in that spot.

In 1,457 at bats over the past three seasons, Carpenter has a slash line of .300/.368/.472 while hitting leadoff. He became a power source in 2015, cranking 28 home runs, 22 of them came while hitting leadoff. Call it situational bias or just direct thinking, but Carp hits well there.

At the Winter Warmup, he admitted to feeling “most comfortable” in the leadoff spot. That doesn’t mean he would be against moving to another spot. So let’s say Mike Matheny calls him tomorrow and says he is moving down. Who hits #1? Let’s dig into some options.

Next: Mr. Hawaii