5 free agents the St. Louis Cardinals should pursue

Corey Seager

Corey Seager is one heck of an athlete and would be a tremendous addition to the Cardinals.

The Cardinals do have their eye on improving the offense and upgrading their defense in the middle infield. Seager, 27, would be an excellent option.

In his seven seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seager is hitting .297/.367/.504 with an OPS of .807. A look at his spray chart on Baseball Savant in 2021 indicates Seager, a lefty, can hit the ball anywhere. In 2021, he’s hitting .306/.394/.521 with a .915 OPS.  He has a hard-hit percentage of 49. This season he has 108 hits, 16 home runs, 57 RBI, and one stolen base.

Fielding-wise, in 2021, he made 104 putouts, 202 assists, started 12 double plays, and turned nine. He’s helped with 20 double plays this season. The Cardinals are traditionally one of the better teams at turning the double play, so with a .975 fielding percentage, he would be a tremendous asset. Current shortstop Paul DeJong, however, participated in 47 double plays with a .980 fielding percentage.

Even with 19 home runs, DeJong had a down year at-bat. Seager would be a significant upgrade hitting-wise as DeJong hit .193/.390/.293. Whether the Cardinals would try to keep DeJong or trade him, the team does have something to consider with Seager as an option.

Robbie Ray

With eight seasons under his belt, lefty Robbie Ray had a tremendous 2021 season with the Toronto Blue Jays.

In 32 games, Ray was 13-7 with 139.1 innings pitched and 248 strikeouts. A lefty who can eat innings and throw strikes? Sign him up!

Ray relies on a four-seam fastball and a slider, mixing in a curveball, change-up and sinker to throw hitters off balance. The 4 seam fastball averages 94.8 mph, with a 93% active spin and a 13.5-inch vertical drop. The max velocity on his curve is 82.5 mph with 13% active spin and a vertical drop of 40.3 inches. The slider maxes out at 88.6 mph with a 27.6-inch vertical drop. The sinker pitch allowed him to put away batters at a rate of 33.3%, averaging 95.5 mph with a 42% active spin and a 15.1-inch vertical drop.

Ray had an outstanding month of August and just like the Cardinals very own Adam Wainwright, he earned August Pitcher of the Month honors for the American League. Those two on the same team could be outstanding.

Ray is a workhorse and would be an awesome addition to the pitching staff in that he would provide a left-handed option for eating up innings and throwing strikes. It would be great to get a two-year deal with him.

Kevin Gausman

Kevin Gausman pitched in 33 games for the San Francisco Giants in 2021 going 14-6 in 192 innings and throwing 227 strikeouts.

The right-hander relies on a four-seam fastball, a split-finger fastball, a change-up and a slider. The four-seamer goes 94.6 mph with a 98% active spin and 14.2-inches of vertical drop. The changeup averages 83.8 mph with a  93% active spin and 27.3 inches of vertical drop. The splitter averages 83.6 mph with 73% active spin and 37 inches of vertical drop. The slider averages 81.9 mph with 19% active spin and 39.7 inches of vertical drop.

Gausman would be a good mid-rotation option for the Cardinals with the ability to go several innings and throw strike. After last season, Cardinal fans know pitching is something you can never have too much of as you go deep into the season.

Trevor Story

If the Cardinals have coveted the services of any player more than Nolan Arenado it would be Trevor Story. Since Arenado’s arrival in St. Louis, the All-Star third baseman has hinted that he would enjoy playing with Story again as the two are best of friends. Arenado was Story’s hype man at the Home Run Derby in Denver last summer.

Cardinal fans know that keeping Arenado happy is important. It’s a little frustrating to consider after the lack-luster postseason from Arenado, but throw in that he chose not to use his opt out and stay in St. Louis for next season and you want to keep the man with so much potential around. While Arenado was pretty close to hitting coach Jeff Albert and always picked his brain, it is unclear how close he was to Shildt.

Would the recent firing make Arenado apprehensive about telling his best friend to join him in St. Louis? We will just have to wait and see how this move affects the team.

In 2021, Story hit .251/.329/.471 with a +100 wRC. He hit 24 home runs, 34 doubles, 5 triples, 53 walks, and 75 RBI. He also had 20 stolen base.

Fielding-wise, he was involved in 85 double plays, turning 46. He has a fielding percentage of .975. He would be an outstanding addition to the Cardinals already Gold Glover caliber infield. I do see Mozeliak making a big push for Story.

Archie Bradley

In more of a set-up role for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2021, Archie Bradley, 29, was 7-3 in 53 games for the club throwing 51 innings. He had two saves, 13 holds and three blown saves. He had 22 walks and 40 strikeouts.

If you remember, the bullpen allowed many, many walks in 2021. So, Bradley only have 22 walks for the whole season is refreshing to see.

Bradley has relies on a four-seam fastball, a sinker, curveball and change-up. The four-seamer averages 94 mph with an active spin of 95% and 14.7 inches of vertical drop. The sinker averages 93.9 mph with an active spin of 95% and 17.6 inches of vertical drop. The change-up average 85.5 mph with an active spin of 98% and 29.2 inches of vertical drop. The curveball averages 78.2 mph with an active spin of 78% and 56.1 inches of vertical drop.

That’s a pretty filthy arsenal. Having a reliable, veteran arm in the bullpen to join some of the younger arms would be good for the Cardinals. The club endured pitching issues all season and it would be great to have an option like Bradley in the fold.