St. Louis Cardinals: Dylan Carlson needs to start 2020 in the MLB

The start of the season for our St. Louis Cardinals is up in the air for 2020 but if they do play, Dylan Carlson needs to start the year with the big club.

When the St. Louis Cardinals last played this spring, all signs pointed to Dylan Carlson starting the year with AAA Memphis, to be waiting in the wings until injury or lack of performance at the MLB level required his services.

Unfortunately for us, the Cardinals haven’t played a game in about a month and at this point, I’d yearn for a world where I was frustrated at the Cardinals for keeping Carlson at AAA. At least there’d be games going on.

If the season had been played as normal, I would’ve expected the census top-20 prospect in baseball to make his appearance in the bigs by the end of June. That is a conservative estimate, but it was something I was prepared to hang my hat on.

Carlson would get another half-season of AAA seasoning, and the Cards would get plenty of time to see what they had in terms of Tyler O’Neill and Lane Thomas. They could’ve seen what type of player Harrison Bader could bounce back to, and how good Dexter Fowler still was.

Again, unfortunately for us, the 2020 season won’t afford that much leisure. If, and it makes me sad to say if, the Cards play in 2020, the season will not be anywhere near the 162 games that a normal season affords. Signs point to the season being closer to that 100-game mark at best.

In that scenario, especially if there is radical realignment, the Cardinals are going to need all the firepower they can get right off the bat. If you’re talking firepower, Carlson has to be included in the list of players the team needs right off the bat.

A shortened season would be a bloodbath push. Even if there is a DH, even if the postseason field is expanded to seven teams per league, there will be no time for waiting around.

One thing that will help Carlson’s case is the possibility of a 29-man roster. This idea, reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, would likely be just for the first month of the season, and would primarily be there for teams to carry more pitchers so each one has to carry less of an innings load.

There has not been any specific rules or really anything official out about what expanded rosters would look like, but you’d have to think the Cardinals sacrificing one of those expanded spots for Carlson would be an easy choice.

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The argument that Carlson needs more seasoning at AAA does hold some water, as his 18 games there at the end of 2019 were just a taste. However, Carlson had a good spring, batting .313 with a .905 OPS and plenty of MLB stars get less than 18 games of experience at the AAA level.

The 2020 season will be a trial by fire and the Cardinals would be idiots to leave what could be one of their most valuable outfielders at AAA longer than they need to.

Service time for minor leaguers and what that would entail as far as starting their “major league clock,” hasn’t been decided yet and won’t until there is a definite starting point for the year. However, the Cardinals have never been a team to manipulate the clocks of their up and coming players.

The 21-year-old Carlson will get his shot and should be a very special player. He could benefit from more seasoning, but in a shortened season, it’ll be hard for the team to leave him down in AAA any longer. If the expanded rosters are there, Carlson needs to be in one of those spots.