St. Louis Cardinals: Christmas Wish List for the 2017 Season

Christmas is quickly approaching and the St. Louis Cardinals are wishing 2017 goes better than 2016. Besides that though, they likely have some other big wishes.

The St. Louis Cardinals had two of their wishes granted this offseason when they signed Brett Cecil and Dexter Fowler. However, there’s plenty more to wish for as Christmas and the 2017 season approaches. Below, is a personalized wish list split into four categories but not in any particular order. Many of these don’t need to happen for a successful 2017 season but they would make things a lot easier.

Field Players

• Yadier Molina to be healthy for the entire season.

One of the number one wishes for the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans has to be Yadier Molina remaining healthy for an entire season. He’s individually a key for this team to be successful and the players and fans have been able to see that over the past few years when he was on the disabled list and the team struggled. Last year, Molina played in 146 games and batted .307/.360/.427 but what was even more impressive was his second half.

After the All-Star break, when he was full recovered from his 2015 thumb injury, Molina absolutely dominated and posted a .365/.398/.529 slash-line. Now, that definitely isn’t expected for the 2017 season, but if he remains healthy, there’s no reason to believe he can’t post another batting line like 2016. Also, this is all without considering Molina’s defensive value to the team or his value in the clubhouse and dugout.

• Kolten Wong starts in roughly 140 games at Second Base (at the MLB level).

A big message given by John Mozeliak and the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason has been that Kolten Wong will in fact be the starting second baseman for the 2017 season. They also expressed that Wong needs to be a part of the everyday lineup because of his defense. However, we’ve heard this all before but with Wong’s inconsistency at the plate, Mike Matheny hasn’t been as patient with him as maybe Mozeliak would have liked.

Now though, Mozeliak has consistently and deliberately made his point clear: Kolten Wong must play a lot. The belief is Wong significantly improves the defense and could potentially be a gold glove second baseman. He has averaged more than 5 defensive runs saved a season and posted an impressive 4.5 ultimate zone rating last year. With this pitching staff, the Cardinals need good defenders in the infield and Wong needs to be out there for their plan to work.

• Randal Grichuk plays in roughly 150 major league games.

Another message from the St. Louis Cardinals is they didn’t quite love Randal Grichuk in center-field. His defensive capabilities compared to Fowler’s can be debated for hours and hours but the main focus on this wish is his power bat. The Cardinals lost quite a bit of power between Brandon Moss and Matt Holliday and Grichuk has shown he can homer with some of the best. The question is, can he do it at a consistent level?

Like Wong, Grichuk wasn’t given much patience last season as he went through his hot and cold streaks. Despite that, he still managed 24 home runs in 132 games. While Grichuk does strikeout at a high rate and isn’t an OBP type guy, he is a threatening bat in a lineup that severely lacks pop. Another reason for this wish is to truly see what Grichuk is. Give him a full season at the MLB level and that will tell the organization a lot about the outfield going forward.

• Matt Carpenter hits well while not leading off.

The biggest headlines for the St. Louis Cardinals this winter was the signing of center fielder and lead off specialist Dexter Fowler. This left a lot of questions as to where Matt Carpenter will be placed in the batting order. For his career at the lead-off spot, Carp has slashed .295/.387/.485 but with the addition of Fowler, the Cardinals believe Carp can be a huge contributor further down in the order.

All signs and speculation lead to him batting 3rd while some (like me) believe he should bat 2nd and then there are those who believe he should bat clean-up. The Cards tried moving him away from lead-off a few times but it hasn’t been for an extended period of time and it wasn’t exactly successful. With that said, the Cardinals and their fans are wishing that Carpenter can become a big-time contributor in the middle of the order. If not, a back-up plan of moving Fowler down may be in order.