St. Louis Cardinals: Protection (or better) waiting in the wings

The St. Louis Cardinals may find answers to their infield questions waiting in the minors.
The St. Louis Cardinals contemplated making additions to their 2018 roster in the infield. While not making any additions, the Cardinals may need to look to their farm system for support.
Before digging into the young guys, let me share that fans were able to hear from Matt Carpenter and Carson Kelly during the Winter Warmup. Carpenter suggested that he has not ever requested/demanded to bat leadoff and Kelly praised his battery-mate, Alex Reyes.
Additionally, fans of the Cardinals were able to hear from Jose Martinez who may play into both the infield and outfield of the 2018 season. One other piece of news from the Warmup: Paul DeJong has relinquished jersey number 11 so that Jose Oquendo may have his number back; he will now wear number 12.
All of these sleepy pieces of news pale in comparison to the potential promise of last year’s surprising appearance of Patrick Wisdom who also appeared at the Warmup. Let’s take a look at Wisdom’s career and why last season’s numbers may present solutions to the 2018 Cardinals.
Year | Age | AgeDif | Tm | Lg | Lev | Aff | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | 20 | -1.1 | Batavia | NYPL | A- | STL | 65 | 279 | 241 | 40 | 68 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 32 | 2 | 1 | 31 | 58 | .282 | .373 | .465 | .837 | 112 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
2013 | 21 | -0.6 | 2 Teams | 2 Lgs | A-A+ | STL | 129 | 525 | 464 | 62 | 109 | 24 | 4 | 15 | 73 | 5 | 1 | 51 | 137 | .235 | .313 | .401 | .714 | 186 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
2013 | 21 | -1.8 | Palm Beach | FLOR | A+ | STL | 25 | 102 | 92 | 8 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 23 | .250 | .317 | .359 | .676 | 33 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
2013 | 21 | -0.3 | Peoria | MIDW | A | STL | 104 | 423 | 372 | 54 | 86 | 20 | 4 | 13 | 62 | 4 | 1 | 42 | 114 | .231 | .312 | .411 | .723 | 153 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
2014 | 22 | -2.1 | Springfield | TL | AA | STL | 128 | 498 | 452 | 49 | 97 | 19 | 4 | 14 | 53 | 5 | 1 | 39 | 149 | .215 | .277 | .367 | .644 | 166 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
2015 | 23 | -1.2 | Springfield | TL | AA | STL | 114 | 455 | 414 | 51 | 98 | 20 | 4 | 14 | 61 | 11 | 3 | 35 | 107 | .237 | .294 | .406 | .699 | 168 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
2015 | 23 | 0.8 | Surprise | AZFL | Fal | 24 | 97 | 93 | 15 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 21 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 17 | .237 | .268 | .452 | .720 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
2016 | 24 | -2.4 | 2 Teams | 2 Lgs | AAA-Rk | STL | 81 | 303 | 268 | 31 | 64 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 33 | 6 | 1 | 29 | 75 | .239 | .314 | .377 | .690 | 101 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
2016 | 24 | -2.6 | Memphis | PCL | AAA | STL | 78 | 294 | 262 | 29 | 61 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 30 | 5 | 1 | 26 | 73 | .233 | .303 | .374 | .677 | 98 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
2016 | 24 | 4.3 | Cardinals | GULF | Rk | STL | 3 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | .500 | .667 | .500 | 1.167 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2017 | 25 | -1.4 | Memphis | PCL | AAA | STL | 127 | 506 | 456 | 68 | 111 | 25 | 1 | 31 | 89 | 2 | 2 | 38 | 149 | .243 | .310 | .507 | .817 | 231 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
Minors (6 seasons) | Minors | 644 | 2566 | 2295 | 301 | 547 | 124 | 19 | 85 | 341 | 31 | 9 | 223 | 675 | .238 | .309 | .420 | .729 | 964 | 37 | 20 | 6 | 22 | 2 | |||||
All Levels (6 Seasons) | 668 | 2663 | 2388 | 316 | 569 | 130 | 20 | 89 | 362 | 34 | 10 | 227 | 692 | .238 | .307 | .421 | .728 | 1006 | 37 | 20 | 6 | 22 | 2 | ||||||
AAA (2 seasons) | Minors | 205 | 800 | 718 | 97 | 172 | 45 | 2 | 36 | 119 | 7 | 3 | 64 | 222 | .240 | .308 | .458 | .766 | 329 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |||||
AA (2 seasons) | Minors | 242 | 953 | 866 | 100 | 195 | 39 | 8 | 28 | 114 | 16 | 4 | 74 | 256 | .225 | .285 | .386 | .671 | 334 | 17 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 0 |
Should Wisdom repeat the impressive numbers of 2017, he could be a nice supporter for first and third base in 2018.
Here’s my thought on Wisdom: he will clearly start the 2018 season in Memphis to see if he can replicate his numbers of last season. Then, if he is near the numbers, look for him to be used should an injury or poor performance rear its ugly head in St. Louis. This move will show other teams that he is MLB-ready and build his value as a trade piece for the deadline.
In short, I doubt that Wisdom- who survived the rule 5 selections in 2017- is on any other team’s radar at present but I predict that to change quickly in the 2018 season.
Wisdom isn’t the only name that St. Louis Cardinals should keep a keen eye on. For my take, I recommend watching the rise of Luke Voit, Breyvic Valera, Delvin Perez, Yairo Munoz, and Edmundo Sosa.