St. Louis Cardinals: Reinforcements are arriving soon

The St. Louis Cardinals have been tearing it up lately and it shows in the standings. The team may not have made a trade, but reinforcements are coming.

It seems like we are all watching the St. Louis Cardinals in disappointment this week after their meager performance at the 2019 Trade Deadline. Even when the team had more or less their best performance of the year on Thursday night, one-hitting the Chicago Cubs in an emphatic 8-0 win to take the series and a division lead, it all seemed hollow.

Time heals all and in a month or two, we can look back and be angry the team didn’t do anything, but the hens will come home to roost eventually and in the meantime, brooding in sadness about the team isn’t going to make the rest of your summer any more fun.

Excuse me for being an optimist and using the forever angering line, but the Cardinals are about to get back a couple of players off the injured list and you know what? That’s kind of like making a trade now, isn’t it?

The biggest name that will help with his return is Marcell Ozuna. He is due to come off the injured list Saturday (tonight) as the team starts a short series in Oakland. Given that this is a West coast game, the roster move hasn’t been announced yet for who is being sent down, but Ozuna will be a huge player to get back.

At the time of his injury (broken fingers), Ozuna was the teams best hitter. With an OPS+ of 121, his season numbers are still 7% better than Paul Goldschmidt‘s, but Goldy has been hotter in July than Ozuna has been all year.

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In Ozuna’s absence, Tyler O’Neill did an alright job of replacing him in left field but O’Neill’s hot start has kept his overall numbers up as he has struggled mightily the last two weeks. Yairo Munoz has been exposed as the utility player he is with poor defense and poor batting in extended looks in left field.

In short, there is a wide-open hole for Ozuna to step back into when he returns to the lineup tonight.

One worry I had with Ozuna is that with the hand injury he sustained, his batting would take a while to heat up again while he regains strength. We have seen this with Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong in the past where it can take a couple of months for the player to return to form. The Cardinals can’t afford that with Ozuna.

Thankfully for the team and the pending free agent, Ozuna seems to have picked up right where he left off. In his short, 3-game rehab assignment with Memphis, Ozuna went 4-9 with a homer a double and six RBI’s. Small sample, but I think he’ll be fine.

Matt Carpenter is also still working to find his swing as he is spending another week with the Memphis team as well, he has started to hit a little more but the Cardinals are not in any hurry at all to rush him back.

Yadier Molina started his rehab assignment last night with Memphis too and only played a few innings. His return date is still up in the air but getting in rehab games is a great start.

While Yadi and Carpenter won’t be quite as big jolts to the lineup as Ozuna hopefully will be, but the Cardinals have had their stellar 16-9 July without all three of them in the lineup. They hopefully won’t hurt the team by returning and at the very least, the leadership in the clubhouse will be strengthened.

A Cardinals lineup with a hot Ozuna and Goldschmidt has not been seen this year. So far, one of them has always been hot while the other was cold. With a tough schedule coming up, it would be amazing to see the lineup clicking on all cylinders.

Many fans aren’t ready to move on after the disappointing Trade Deadline but try. It adds no benefit to your life to hold on to any anger. Mozeliak has picked his hill to die on and at the end of the day, all we need to do is enjoy this team. Mo is right, they are a competitive team. So with Ozuna and more players returns on the horizon, enjoy your first-place St. Louis Cardinals.