St. Louis Cardinals: No better time to trade Jedd Gyorko

The St. Louis Cardinals may have an opportunity laying in their laps to move a body and open a spot. The question is whether they should even consider this option at this point.

The St. Louis Cardinals have- very likely- been impressed with the performance of Jedd Gyorko here at the start of 2017. Gyorko, originally slated to be a backup (read: not everyday player), has had to step into the everyday role in the absence of Jhonny Peralta and he has done a great job.

Peralta is absent due to health but also absent due to inability. In his mere eight games of appearances in 2017, Peralta has managed to amass a slash line of .120/.185/.120. Miserable, just miserable.

In the same amount of games, Gyorko slashed .240/.296/.520. Clearly the scales were slanted in favor of Jedd over Jhonny.

Since the opening of the season and since his time playing every day, Gyorko has managed to smash five doubles on the year, one triple, and four home runs. He has managed to grow his slash to an impressive .333/.403/.650.

While a team would seem to be foolish to move a player with these numbers, the St. Louis Cardinals may have no better time than now to garner the most value out of this player.

Let’s take a look at his contract as well. Gyorko is under contract through 2019 with an option for 2020. This is great team control and could well make him attractive to teams that might not otherwise kick the tires on what should be a backup player.

In addition to team control, the money on the contract isn’t too terrible for a team who could use Gyorko’s talent. His numbers look like this: he is owed $6M in 2017 ($2M is paid by San Diego), he is owed $9M in 2018 ($2.5M is paid by San Diego), he is owed $13M in 2019 ($3M is paid by San Diego), and he has a $13M team option with a $1M buy-out in 2020.

Even as I write this piece I feel the insanity of it crushing me. Why would the St. Louis Cardinals send Gyorko away? In all honesty because he might be the player with the most value right now. And, and his value might never be higher than it is right now. So why not shop his name and see what nibbles come?

Complicating the matter is the potential return of Peralta. Let us assume that he returns and continues his terrible ways; wouldn’t the St. Louis Cardinals want to keep Gyorko? Maybe not. More on that in a minute.

What if we assume that Peralta returns and is back to his old self and starts hitting and eliminates the fielding troubles? Gyorko would then drop his playing time and his value would likely decrease. The St. Louis Cardinals- in this scenario- would lose any value that Jedd has earned currently.

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If Peralta returns and his “suckage” continues, then perhaps the time will arrive when Aledmys Diaz finds himself moving over to third base earlier than planned. Let’s be honest here, Diaz is destined to slide to third either next season or the one after with the rise of Delvin Perez as the short stop of the future.

If Peralta is truly done (and I’m afraid this will be the case) then moving Diaz now wouldn’t be that terrible. If Diaz moves to third, he stays in the lineup and the St. Louis Cardinals could either replace him with someone from outside the organization or go ahead and risk the platoon of Paul DeJong and Greg Garcia at short.

Let’s take a quick look at DeJong who has been raking of late in Memphis. Just yesterday, DeJong- playing short stop nonetheless- smashed two home runs in one game. Two homers from a guy not thought of as having incredible power. To his credit, DeJong has an impressive slash of .301/.326/.566.

To his credit, Garcia- in limited playing time of twenty-one games- has earned a slash of .308/.400/.385. As you may or may not know, I am a huge Garcia fan and am also a big DeJong fan. I don’t see either of these players being a rough option should Diaz need to slide over earlier than planned.

Oh, and there’s also this guy named Patrick Wisdom in Memphis who has been the regular third baseman. Wisdom has been in the organization for a few seasons but is just now turning heads– but turning them with whiplash. Wisdom has four homers on the season and has a slash of .286/.337/.512.

Next: The awakening of Dexter Fowler

What do you think? Should the St. Louis Cardinals shop Gyorko or hold onto him to protect against a fading Peralta? And if they do shop him, what should they seek in return? Hit me up on Twitter and let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading!