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

The 2018 St. Louis Cardinals season will be one to watch with many moves including many promising prospects.

The St. Louis Cardinals, I predict, will be a team to watch in 2018 for the number of wins as well as the number of moves made. While I hope that the Cardinals players will perform at the levels expected, I find great comfort in who is waiting in the wings.

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Thinking ahead, it seems that the St. Louis Cardinals and fans should prepare for the rise of names listed in previous slides. Of these, I think the most likely to rise to be Flaherty, Hudson, and O’Neill. And, of these three, I am most excited to watch O’Neill.

Spring Training is just a matter of days away and from all reports from the Winter Warmup, the St. Louis Cardinals are likely done making trades or acquisitions as exemplified in DeWitt’s comments. While these comments were made, they say nothing about internal moves.

Fast-forward to Spring Training and the internal battles for positions, and you have yourself a recipe for internal moves making way to external moves. My gut simply tells me that the Cardinals have shopped the names in the previous slides and that clubs would like to see more evidence of their abilities.

Roll through Spring Training (and maybe the beginning of the season), gain additional experience, and then strike while the iron is hot. This, I believe is a very likely outcome and is something worth watching.

Next: 2018 bests can prove fans wrong

All of this said, we know too that the St. Louis Cardinals- at least in recent seasons- have been slow to act and methodical in their approach. In short, don’t expect any rash or quick moves. But, they would be nice and these guys offer protection for them and parts to be used in them. Thanks for reading!