Cardinals' desire for third base upgrade should point to needing more than Alec Bohm

The St. Louis Cardinals have a few things remaining on their offseason to-do list, and there is a soft deadline of December 1 to check off those items. One of those commonly recurring themes on said list is to find an upgrade at the few positions the Cardinals have an opening. Beyond the bullpen and need for a long-term center fielder, third base has been a hot (corner) topic early in November.

The need for a third base upgrade is clear. The Nolan Arenado era ended with a whimper after he held down the position for five seasons. Chaim Bloom decided it was best to move on from Arenado as the Cardinals attempted to give Nolan Gorman his uninterrupted opportunity to take a long-term hold on the spot. As we all know, that did not come to pass and the Cardinals went through a handful of different options for third base, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. By season's end, the third base conglomerate finished 27th in baseball by fWAR and 29th by wRC+.

Alec Bohm is not the upgrade at third base that Cardinals fans think he is

Thanks to that abysmal performance by the entire third base group, an obvious need for an upgrade for the 2027 team comes at the hot corner. After cycling through Gorman, Thomas Saggese, and Blaze Jordan, the Cardinals go into next year without a clear starting third baseman for the first time in a decade. Each of those three has shown the ability to be big leaguers in small spurts with Jordan looking like the most complete hitter of the group. Saggese has positional versatility that would end up with him likely sliding into a super utility role rather than as a full-time third baseman.

With nobody knocking on the door in Triple-A, the attention immediately turned to the free agent market for anyone and everyone who can handle the hot corner. In a desire for something different, the search among the free agents yields few results for third-base options who fit the Cardinals' opening. The slim pickings on the market led fans to a common option who has been connected to St. Louis before: Phillies corner infielder Alec Bohm.

MLB Trade Rumors recently ranked Bohm as the 55th-best free agent this offseason. Bohm has had an interesting tenure in Philly, voicing his displeasure for the city before backtracking and having a solid performance to make fans forget. However, he was surrounded by a more potent offense that allowed him to do much more damage than a St. Louis lineup provided. In three of the past four seasons, Bohm has driven in at least 88 runs, but done so with a total of 61 homers over that span. For an offense that needs more power, he has yet to provide that in his seven years in the bigs.

Because of his run-producing abilities, Bohm will get a contract approaching the $10 million-$15 million range. That is not a steep price to pay for RBI production, but a cost that the Cardinals would do better off without. In a year where guys like Jordan and Saggese could provide similar production as a tandem, St. Louis would be better off allocating that same amount of money to other spots on the roster, namely the pitching staff. The Cardinals can afford to use third base as a prove-it spot for their own guys to start the year and then address the concern if their current options become unplayable.

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