St. Louis Cardinals: Patrick Wisdom and 2018 aspirations

Patrick Wisdom has played great baseball in the minor leagues the last couple of years, but will 2018 be the year he gets called up to the St. Louis Cardinals?

The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot of good young talent in their farm systems, but one player overlooked lately is Patrick Wisdom. Last season with the Memphis Redbirds, Wisdom played in 127 games, had a .243 batting average, a .310 on-base percentage, hit 31 home runs and had 89 runs batted in.

Prior to his 2017 season with the Redbirds, Wisdom also played in Memphis during the 2016 season. During that time he played just 78 games, had a .233 average, a .303 on-base percentage, five home runs and 30 RBIs.

Defensively last year, Wisdom played first base in eight games and played 113 games at third base. At third he committed 15 errors in 975 innings, where at first he didn’t commit a single error in just 62 innings.

Obviously he is primarily a third baseman, which will more than likely be filled by Jedd Gyorko in the 2018 season for the Cardinals.

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Wisdom is not in the Top-30 prospects for the Cardinals, nor is on the 40-man roster to start off the season.

That does not mean though he cannot make the club either coming out of spring training or be called up later on in the season.

He does have an invite to spring training this season and hopes to see a lot of game action and a lot of practice with Jose Oquendo on the practice fields down in Jupiter, Florida.

Oquendo has had a way to make defenses better, and I think fans have noticed that the last couple of years because of his absence.

Even though his offensive numbers may not be where the Cardinals, or fans, may want them to be, all Wisdom has to do is show he can continue to get on-base and improve his hitting. As well as hit major league pitching while he is in spring training.

Next: Sluggish off-season

Once September call-ups come around or if a player happens to go down with an injury, don’t be surprised if Patrick Wisdom comes up and makes a name for himself like some other players have in the past.