
Milwaukee Brewers: Orlando Arcia
On the surface, Orlando Arcia is not a very exciting name to imagine as a member fot the St. Louis Cardinals’ infield. However, adding Arcia may be a way to try and replace Kolten Wong.
Arcia, a shortstop, was known for his glove coming into the league, but hasn’t been awfully consistent. Much like Wong, Arcia can make fantastic plays, he’s just not consistent yet. At just 26 coming off his first year of arbitration, any potential suitor would have Arcia for two more years.
Adding a more natural shortstop would shift Paul DeJong and his stellar defense to either third or second base, making the infield defensively strong at every position. Now, Cardinals fans might not want to go through the defensive growing pains that they went through with Wong again, but Arcia, like Wong near the age of 26, could be blossoming at the plate.
The shortened 2020 season was Arcia’s best offensive season yet. A .260/.317/.416 slash line doesn’t sound that appetizing, but he was better at the plate than Wong this year.
At the end of the day, this would be a move back in the direction of defense over offense. Arcia is not particularly exciting and is still finding his glove at the MLB level, but he wouldn’t be tough to acquire and would save the Cardinals a lot of money compared to Wong. Arcia is projected between $2.7M-$3.8M in arbitration.