St. Louis Cardinals: Putting together the 2018 lineup

Brimming with potential, DeJong stays in middle of lineup

While it seems somewhat counterproductive to put a strikeout glutton like Paul DeJong in the cleanup spot, his power in comparison with the remaining players makes it almost impossible to knock him down any further given he at least stays close to on pace with his rookie year.

While his lack of career success in the four spot might be off-putting to some, the fact of the matter is that we really don’t know how he will perform outside of the three spot simply because there is almost zero sample size anywhere else. With the way the line up was constructed last season, DeJong was the only player with the kind of power to hit at the three spot in 2017, so that’s where he resided.

2017: .285/.325/.532, 25 home runs, 65 RBI’s in 443 PA’s

2017 as #4 hitter: .125/.125/.500, 1 home run, 1 RBI in 8 PA’s

Career as #4 hitter: .125/.125/.500, 1 home run, 1 RBI in 8 PA’s

With Ozuna in the mix, that is no longer the case. Because he was forced there more out of necessity than localized comfort in the lineup, I do not think his hitting will suffer as the result of moving DeJong to fourth in the lineup. His strikeout rate is somewhat concerning, but he has been able to make up for that with a .349 BABIP and a 36.4% hard hit rate.

Overall, DeJong provides the biggest threat and best protection to Ozuna because of his above average pop. His power and batting sense will hopefully continue to develop, and he should grow into this spot nicely as the season progresses.