St. Louis Cardinals: Aledmys Diaz is Your Shortstop

The St. Louis Cardinals may be saying that everyone is getting a fair shot at the shortstop position, but a clear front-runner is emerging.

Earlier today, Mark Saxon of ESPN wrote that Aledmys Diaz is establishing himself as the front-runner for the shortstop position for the St. Louis Cardinals. This is not by anything that the organization or management has said, but in the actions of the club and in the situation surrounding them.

Saxon writes that in four of the six days since Jhonny Peralta went down with injury, the starter has been Aledmys Diaz, which shows that the Cardinals may be leaning towards the Cuban prospect for the starting shortstop role.

Even before the injury, Diaz was seeing a lot of time in the lineup proving that the Cardinals are extremely interested in what Diaz has to offer offensively. While Jedd Gyorko may have the power, it is becoming evident that Diaz is the best option defensively.

Diaz has caught more than just the eye of Mark Saxon, as Jose Oquendo told Saxon that Diaz has come a long way defensively since this time last year saying, “I think he can help us right now. It’s just a matter if they feel he has enough games yet, because he’s been hurt in the past.” Catching the eye of Oquendo is a good thing, this will go a long way with the club’s decision on the shortstop position.

The wildcard in all of this is Jedd Gyorko and Greg Garcia‘s defensive abilities at the position in comparison to Diaz. In his entire professional career, Gyorko only has 29 games at the shortstop position, notably not recording a single appearance there until just last season, making it seem that Gyorko is a better fit off of the bench there and at 2B/3B.

Meanwhile Greg Garcia does offer experience at the shortstop position, playing in 318 minor league games at the position and 13 big league starts there in 2014-2015. However, the Cardinals’ lack of trust in Garcia at the position was shown last season, when they chose to roll with Pete Kozma as the backup and keep Garcia down in Memphis for the majority of the season.

Garcia also spent the majority of 2014 as the starting second baseman for the Memphis Redbirds, thus showing the club’s hesitancy to have him play SS even as he was still considered a “prospect”.

With the club still looking outside at options, it makes me think even more that they want to entertain the possibility of having Greg Garcia start the season in AAA.

Mike Matheny‘s comments regarding the situation make it clear the club is going to wait to anoint Diaz until further along, as he told Saxon, “my evaluation is we haven’t had enough of a chance to make a statement like that.”

Next: The Cardinals Don't Need to Get a Shortstop From Outside

It is going to be a fun battle to continue to keep tabs on, but it seems clear that Diaz has a hold on the role.