St. Louis Cardinals: Breyvic Valera heading to join the Cards

The St. Louis Cardinals recall Breyvic Valera from triple-A Memphis.

After suffering a couple of injuries in the last couple of days, the St. Louis Cardinals have added some reinforcements in San Diego. Infielder Breyvic Valera heads to San Diego to help the ailing birds in their attempt to make the playoffs, after missing it last year.

Valera, who has spent the 2017 with Memphis, has been a member of the St. Louis Cardinals organization since 2010. In the eight years since then, Valera has seen every level of the minor leagues, and now finally has the chance to show what he can do at the big leagues.

He is a second base/short stop, but has also seen some time in the outfield as well. In 117 games this season with Memphis, Valera is hitting .314 with a OBP and SLG of .368 and .450 respectively. The kid also has some speed to his game, swiping eleven bases in 2017. one advantage to his game is he is a switch-hitter.

According to MLB.com, Valera is not on the top-30 prospect list for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, given the stats from above, I’d say his play exceeds any kind of ranking.

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It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals use Valera while he is with the team. He certainly is the kind of hitter you want to see at the top of your lineup, but what position would he play?

It’s possible Valera is with the team just purely for reinforcements should someone else go down, but I don’t think that will be the case.

Given his versatility, I think Valera could be used in any of the positions I mentioned above. He could be used to give Paul DeJong a night off.

He could platoon with Kolten Wong down the stretch. It could keep Wong healthy towards the end of the season In case the post-season comes knocking.

He also could slot in the outfield as well. While this would be more of a stretch, Valera’s speed would be noticeable in the outfield, especially in center field should Dexter Fowler not be playing. Either way, Valera will have a tough task cracking the everyday lineup, but I expect Mike Matheny to give him the chance to play. Frankly, the St. Louis Cardinals don’t have anything to lose anyway.

Next: Official podcast episode 24

Once again the St. Louis Cardinals are tapping into their future. Valera may not bring the power the lineup needs, but he can be a fundamental player to the team’s success down the road.