St. Louis Cardinals are trying a new look in lineup Monday

The St. Louis Cardinals have kept a very similar lineup when the regulars have been this spring. On Monday, Mike Shildt is shaking things up.

The addition of Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals‘ lineup is going to do a lot for this team. Paul Goldschmidt no longer has to be the lone big man in the middle of the lineup and defensively the entire infield will benefit.

With another RBI-man in the lineup, the question becomes where to place the two big bats.

So far this spring, Mike Shildt has exclusively put Goldschmidt third and Arenado cleanup when both have been in the lineup. This makes perfect sense and is the most likely Opening Day lineup, but there are other options.

On Monday, Shildt is bringing one other option out.

Some on Twitter believe that this lineup (at least the top four) shouldn’t be the way the team does it. However, I think it has some unique benefits.

First, the opposing pitcher has to see the two best hitters in the first inning, no matter what. Having Goldy bat second puts the pressure on right away, especially if Edman gets on base.

The second benefit comes from getting the two biggest bats the most at-bats possible in a game. Just because of the way things work, the top three in the order will always see more at-bats than the bottom three. For the Cardinals’ offense, getting Goldy and Arenado the most looks makes a lot of sense.

For those who may think that the order should be flipped, with Arenado before Goldschmidt, that may not be the best decision. In their careers, Arenado has always been a worse on-base guy and a better RBI-guy. Goldy has always been the opposite.

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Goldy has a career .392 on-base percentage and a .522 career slugging percentage. Arenado has a career .349 on-base and .591 slugging. It’s not that hard to imagine that you’d want the player more likely to get on base batting before the player more likely to hit an extra-base hit.

Outside of just the Goldschmidt/Arenado debate in this lineup, some fans turn their nose up at the idea of DeJong batting cleanup. If this lineup works the way it should, he should have plenty of chances with runners on base and to prove he’s the guy for that spot.

If I’m being honest, no matter what order you bat the 4-5-6 in this lineup, it’s going to be a solid lineup. Each player here offers something different that can help the team in any of the spots, so roll the dice, put them in at random. The only benefit that’s there from having Carlson at 5th is that he can offset the three righties in a row after Edman leading off. However, debating where to put DeJong/O’Neill/Carlson is nit-picking.

It’ll be interesting to watch how this lineup works together. The regulars are slowly starting to play into the 4th-5th inning rather than earlier, but this lineup could offer more of a spark than Goldy batting third and Arenado batting fourth. This debate is a good argument to be able to have.