St. Louis Cardinals: Please do not consider Mark Trumbo

The St. Louis Cardinals left the Winter Meetings successful after they signed center fielder Dexter Fowler. However, there remains a number of big bats on the market that might fit into Mike Matheny’s lineup pretty well.

The St. Louis Cardinals, according to John Mozeliak, are just looking to add complementary pieces and have completed their major moves. They recently signed Dexter Fowler and Brett Cecil as their big moves while adding players like Eric Fryer to be those complementary pieces.

But, as many fans may know, there are some big-time power bats still available on the free agent market. Edwin Encarnacion, Mark Trumbo, Jose Bautista and Mike Napoli have all had issues finding teams willing to reach their desired prices. However, these players may need to compromise and lower their prices and years requested. If that’s the case, the St. Louis Cardinals could capitalize on the cheaper opportunities.

Encarnacion and Trumbo specifically have enticed fans and reporters. Both are sluggers that are perceived as players that would turn the high-OBP batting order into a high octane offense. However, unlike the positive opinion on Encarnacion, the Cardinals should not be interested in Mark Trumbo whatsoever.

Trumbo played in 159 games last season for the Baltimore Orioles. He led the majors in 47 home runs, tacked on 108 RBI and finished the season with a .256/.316/.533 slash-line. That all sounds awesome for a bat the Cardinals could slot in at #3 or #4 however, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Mark Trumbo.

Trumbo may have been a huge power threat in the American League East, but he’s also hugely reliant on those home runs. He hit 47 bombs but managed to strikeout 25.5% of the time. He also struggles to get on base at a decent rate which can be partially attributed to his below-average walk rate of 7.6%. And while his 2016 slash-line looks great on the surface, he outperformed his career norms by quite a margin. Through his 7-year career, he’s batted .251/.303/473.

His batting average and his on-base percentage just do not fit John Mozeliak’s plan for the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense. Mozeliak went with a high-OBP guy in Dexter Fowler (.393 2016 OBP) to match up with Matt Carpenter (.380), Aledmys Diaz (.369) and Stephen Piscotty (.343). Trumbo would essentially be the exact opposite of that scheme.

Furthermore, Mark Trumbo doesn’t fit John Mozeliak’s goals of improving the defense. Trumbo has primarily been a right fielder or a first baseman when he isn’t playing as the designated hitter. For the Orioles, he logged 783 innings in right field in 2016 and posted a minus-9 defensive runs saved and a minus-5.9 ultimate zone rating.

For first base, Trumbo played 37 innings in 2016 so any stats can be considered negligible due to small sample size. If we go back to 2013 when Trumbo played 1st base full-time for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he managed to be a little above average. In 1030.2 innings, he posted a 8.5 UZR and had 2 defensive runs saved. However, that athleticism and defensive ability seems to be in Trumbo’s past considering how poor he’s been in the field since then.