Here’s why the St. Louis Cardinals need Moises Gomez

J.T. Buchheit

The St. Louis Cardinals should call on the services of Moises Gomez to start next season.

The St. Louis Cardinals outfield is in shambles, and with a terror wreaking havoc at Triple-A in the form of Moises Gomez, the Cardinals may need to give him a chance to make the team out of Spring Training in 2023.

Gomez has titanic power; he tied the Cardinals’ single-season minor league home run record on Sept. 20 with his 37th bomb. Alec Burleson, the latest outfielder to debut in St. Louis, hasn’t been what the team had hoped for to this point, and while the Cardinals should undoubtedly continue to give Burleson opportunities, Gomez could be a solution to the outfield production problem as well.

Originally a member of the Tampa Bay Rays farm system, Gomez could be a rare instance of the Rays’ cutting-edge front office making a mistake when the team released him last year. The Cardinals scooped him up, and he’s done nothing but hit since joining the team.

Gomez is currently sporting a .298 average to go with the aforementioned 37 home runs across Double-A and Triple-A this year. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold in a conversation with President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak, Gomez’s ability to make contact was not a fluke, and the front office will need to make a decision on whether to add him to the roster next year.

Gomez entered Spring Training this year in better shape, and the results showed not just at the plate, but also in the field. He has improved as a right fielder and should be able to serve as a passable defender and spend time at designated hitter as well. The impending retirement of Albert Pujols and likely severing of ties with Corey Dickerson will make the battle for the designated hitter role an interesting one.

Now that Gomez has cleaned up his strikeout issues and wields a threatening bat, the Cardinals will likely take a long look at him next year. He needs to be added to the 40-man roster within five days after the World Series to keep him from entering free agency. The Cardinals need his services, especially if the current outfielders can’t bounce back next year.

J.T. Buchheit

J.T. Buchheit graduated with a journalism degree from Lindenwood University in May 2018. He worked as the copy editor and a writer on three schools’ newspapers from 2011 to 2018, winning a collegiate copy-editing competition in 2016 and receiving several local and national collegiate media writing awards. A native of Washington, Missouri, J.T. lives for baseball, reading books such as Baseball Prospectus every year. The number of Cardinals games he has missed in the last few years lies in the single digits. In addition to his journalistic exploits and rabid baseball fandom, J.T. has a lot of experience onstage, with performances in 21 theatrical productions from grade school through high school and in community theater.