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

The offseason is practically over, as the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitchers and catchers will be reporting for spring training workouts soon. We are now left with the position battle everyone is talking about.

It’s no secret that first base is going to be a competition going into spring training this year for the St. Louis Cardinals. We have two candidates in Brandon Moss and Matt Adams. They both are kind of cut from the same mold, being big left handed power bats, who have shown some promise and struggle in their careers.

On one hand we have a guy who has come up through the Cardinals’ system and has had a lot of promise surrounding him for some time. We saw Adams come up in 2013, he became a bit of a fan favorite, as he was knocking homers left and right off of the bench. We all wondered what Adams could do with 500 at-bats, and we got our answer in 2014, as he unfortunately hit 15 homers in 527 AB.

Moss on the other hand is your veteran, who once was a promising prospect himself. He has been on several different clubs in his career, eventually sticking with the Oakland Athletics for three seasons, where he hit 76 homers in three seasons. He signed with Cleveland in 2015, hoping to help them in their quest for an AL Central title, that fizzled and he was traded to the Cardinals last July.

Neither player had a good 2015 season, as they were plagued by injuries, so both players kind of enter on even ground in 2016.

However, both players have regrouped in the offseason and are rejuvenated and ready to start the 2016 season off on the right foot. So, what does this do for the St. Louis Cardinals? Who wins the battle and is the starter on opening day? Will we have a competition, or will one guy run way with the job?

These are the questions I want to tackle today.

Next: Big City

Matt Adams

Matt has been the topic of a lot discussion this offseason for the Cardinals, I even talked about trusting in Adams before he even came off of the DL in the 2015 season. Adams is an intriguing player, as he was one of the Cardinals top prospects for some time, and has shown “BIG” power potential. On the flip side, Adams has shown an inability to lay off anything down and in or down and out in front of the plate.

This is something that has plagued him his whole career. I can’t tell you how many times I have yelled, “what are you swinging at?!?!” at my television before. Adams has shown a bit of a unique ability to be able to poke the ball the other way when he is pitched away, but this has also hurt him as when he is shifted he seems to intentionally try to go the other way, whether be it by bunting or making weak contact. This inevitably saps the power in his bat.

Coming into 2016, Adams is committed to improving this, as he tells Brian Stull of STL Baseball Weekly, “I worked with (Mabry) about driving the ball better to left center and that’s going to help out a lot better too with the shift–making sure if I get a ball on the outside I’m not trying to do to much with it and pull it. Just let it get to the spot where I can drive it to the gap in left field.” This is really good to hear, as this could be the key to a successful 2016 campaign for Adams.

Adams has also been working hard to get in better shape, telling Brian Stull, “I put more muscle on–leaned up a little bit,” this is welcome news as well, as he will help Adams drive the ball better and become more athletic in the field and allow him to make some impact on the base paths. All in all “Big City” seems committed to proving himself in 2016.

Next: Big Country

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.