St. Louis Cardinals: Brandon Moss and Matt Adams ready to rebound

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Sep 1, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Brandon Moss (21) hits a walk-off three run home run off of Washington Nationals relief pitcher Casey Janssen (not pictured) during the ninth inning at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Nationals 8-5. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

Brandon Moss

Moss is actually one of the players that I am most interested about in 2016. I think that there is a good chance that we see a rejuvenated player in 2016, and I am not alone. Moss is coming off of a year where he struggled to consistently get ahead, as he struggled with the recovery from a hip surgery in the 2014-2015 offseason.

This injury recovery sapped Moss’ power for the most part. However, as he told reporters at Winter Warm Up, he is ready to go with no lingering effects from said injury. He believes that all systems are a go for 2016, and expects his power to be back in action for the Cardinals this season.

What Moss brings to the table that Adams simply does not is an ability to hit left handed pitching, as Moss sports a 100 wRC+ against LHP, as opposed to a 50 wRC+ for Adams. So, theoretically one could see a bit of a platoon situation if Admas happens to win the job away from Moss. Although with both being lefties this would be quite the weird platoon situation.

Alex Kristafulli of Viva El Birdos points out that while Adams seems to be the more attractive candidate to play first given his youth, “Moss is the more ideal candidate from a business standpoint. He’s due to make $6.5 million next year. The Cardinals acquired him in a trade near the 2015 deadline for highly regarded prospect Rob Kaminsky.” This makes Moss the more attractive option for the organization, given what he is costing and has cost the team.

Given Moss’ experience and proven track record of power, it is actually easy to see why the organization is going with the veteran instead of a bit of an unknown in Adams. Moss has had success before crushing balls out of ballparks, so leaning on his experience to get the Cardinals some much needed runs next season is the logical choice for the organization.