St. Louis Cardinals: No love for Randal Grichuk, sorry Josh

Fellow Redbird Rants writer, Josh McDonald, penned a praising article for St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder Randal Grichuk last week. Sorry, Josh, I don’t feel the same way.

If you didn’t get a chance to read Josh’s piece on Randal Grichuk, please do so. It’s the kind of feel good story some of us need to get us through hard times. I mean, who doesn’t love a story where a guy, dubbed the next big thing for the St. Louis Cardinals, struggles out the gate for a second consecutive season, gets sent to the minors, only to have a few good weeks of baseball, right?

I was once a believer in Grichuk’s potential. Earlier this year, I wrote about the outfield for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. I said Grichuk was easily one of the better outfielders in the NL-Central division. He was better defensively than most, and I went as far as to bank on his offensive potential beating out Kyle Schwarber or Ben Zobrist.

Fortunately, for Josh, there are many fans out there who truly believe in Grichuk. They believe it’s a matter of time before his potential truly shines under the Gateway Arch. However, for fans like me, I don’t buy this story at all, at least not anymore.

For what it’s worth, I am happy to see Grichuk have success. I won’t deny his success, either, since the All-Star break. The guy is hitting .295 with six home runs and fourteen RBI since July 21st. During the eight-game win streak, Grichuk batted .357 with two home runs and seven RBI.

I don’t need to go into the advanced metrics to tell me Grichuk looked every bit of the ball player Cardinal Nation expected at the beginning of the year.

Look, I should be excited about his success. If Grichuk does well, then more than likely the St. Louis Cardinals do well too. But there is just something that keeps pulling me back from being genuinely happy.

As we have all seen before, Grichuk is about inconsistent of a player as they come. Opening Day looked like a good sign we were getting the Grichuk we all expected. then comes a MAJOR downward spiral, leading to an eventual demotion to the minors.

Before his demotion to high-A ball and triple-A, Grichuk batted .222 with four home runs and twelve RBI. That amount of games (46) covered the first two full months of the season, practically a third of the season wasted by inconsistent play. We all saw it. He wasn’t good and something needed to be done.

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After getting right, Grichuk came back with some good success over the next week or so. He was hitting for power and average, and although his strikeout were still up, Grichuk was taking good at-bats.

Maybe this was the turn around for everything. Then nine days before the All-Star break, Grichuk was back to his inconsistent ways.

In that time frame, Grichuk batted .138 with two home runs, two RBI, and a whopping thirteen strike outs.

I’ve already discussed what he has done since the All-Star break. While it is impressive, I don’t understand why I should show Grichuk some love. Does a few good weeks of baseball really make up for his terrible start?

I think Josh would agree with me that it doesn’t. But, that is the truth. Grichuk’s inability to play consistently has really been a downer for the St. Louis Cardinals. Imagine Girchuk hitting the way he is now over the entire course of the season. Maybe the Cardinals wouldn’t have three hitter or even clean up hitter problems. It could have also affected how the Cardinals used the trade deadline.

Instead of saying we are going after a big hitter, maybe they use the trade deadline to solidify a rotation or even a bullpen, who could be damaged by an injury to Trevor Rosenthal. Those things matter in the grand scheme of a season.

I won’t praise Grichuk because the St. Louis Cardinals cannot afford to have him play inconsistent each year, be sent to the minors, only to figure out what he should’ve been doing all long. You may think I’m wrong, but look at the standings and tell me if Grichuk weren’t just a little bit better we could’ve won more games.

I know this could be said about the bullpen, starting rotation, defense, and what not, but hasn’t the main focus of this season been the inability of the offense to generate runs? So while it’s nice to see Grichuk have some success, it would’ve been that much nicer for it to have happened consistently through the season, and not after a trip to the minors.

Next: The effect of a Rosenthal injury

I don’t hate Randal Grichuk. I just wish he would play to his capabilities at a consistent rate. The St. Louis Cardinals need him to be the power force they expect him to be. However the team cannot continue to send him down to the minors every year. Something has to give.

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