St. Louis Cardinals: Two of our writers debate Kolten Wong

Larry

Trevor, even without the intentional walks, Wong’s still at a .333 OBP, which exceeds his performance for any season to date. And with the IBBs, he gets on base in front of a Cardinal pitching corps that boasts some pretty decent bats, with Mike Leake, Adam Wainwright, and Carlos Martinez all able to punish the choice to put Wong on.

But your trade conclusion I must disagree with. The injury that Kolten just had, a strained right triceps, is unrelated to his prior injury profile, and isn’t one, absent a serious tear (which there’s no indication of so far) that would give trading partners pause. Do they want to see him healthy prior to a deal? Sure, and we’ll find out about that health soon enough.

Once he’s off the DL, though, Wong presents a great trade opportunity for a team in need of starting 2B help with better-than-average offense this year (OPS+ at 123), a touch of speed, and the potential of brilliant defense.

His contract makes him extremely marketable — under $1.5 million left for this year and an AAV of $7 million for the next three years, which are in the wheelhouse of the peak 27-29 age range.

There are several ways that the Cards could go in assessing a Wong trade: (1) If they find a shortstop and slide Diaz to second; (2) If they find a third baseman and move Gyorko over; or (3) (my least favorite) if they shift Carp back to either 2B or 3B upon finding a first base option. With a cost-controlled Wong in a deal, it alleviates a bit of pressure on Mo to surrender too many key prospects