Cardinals should look to familiar trade partner to clear up outfield logjam

The St. Louis Cardinals offense has had a mixed bag of results thus far in Spring Training, but there have been a few early bright spots that are pushing their way into Opening Day consideration.

Understanding that Spring Training results do not always mean regular season success, the early returns from outfielder Victor Scott II have put some more pressure on the incumbent players battling for playing time.

The Cardinals could clear a path for Victor Scott II if they trade from their center field depth

Last season, the Cardinals had a revolving door in their outfield alignment thanks to late spring injuries or poor performance. With speedy prospect Victor Scott II putting together a strong stat line in Jupiter, the team opened the season with him as their starting center fielder despite not seeing a pitch above the Double-A level. The results, to put it mildly, were poor and resulted in VSII's demotion to Memphis after just 18 games in St. Louis.

Scott's demotion paved the way for light-hitting defensive specialist Michael Siani, who ended up playing 110 games in center. "Light-hitting" is an understatement, as the slick-fielding Siani put up a 61 WRC+, meaning his offense was 39% worse than league average. Even with his struggles, the Cardinals did not bring Scott back up to the majors until August, but he saw inconsistent playing time, only appearing in 28 games and receiving 86 at-bats over the final two months of the year.

Spring Training's hottest camp battle for the Cardinals remains the center field spot, with Lars Nootbaar inserting his name into the discussion as the team weighs the pros and cons of an offense- or defense-first lineup. Nolan Arenado appearing to remain in St. Louis for at least the beginning of the season has a trickle-down effect with the rest of the roster. Utility man Brendan Donovan was expected to get time at second base with Nolan Gorman moving to third, but now it appears as if Donovan may also be in the everyday mix in left, with the Cardinals promising a "runway" to Gorman and right fielder Jordan Walker.

Understanding that inconsistent at-bats and playing time would be a detriment to the development of the 24-year-old Victor Scott, the most likely outcome for the lefty was to start the season in Memphis with Siani cracking the roster as a defensive replacement. However, Scott's early performance in Spring Training may have flipped the script on the team's outfield plans for the 2025 season.

In the extremely small three-game sample for Scott, he has begun to check all of the boxes that would make him the early leader for the center field spot. So far, Scott is hitting a blistering .571 with a 1.953 OPS helped by a homer and triple from his second spring game. While he was able to showcase his speed and power during that game, the out he made in his third plate appearance was equally impressive, as his lineout to right clocked an exit velocity of 105.9 mph.

In his encore performance, VSII hit leadoff against the Marlins and kept his strong start going. He started the home half of the first inning with a walk and immediately swiped second base before Nootbaar drove him in with an RBI single. Scott received his second plate appearance just an inning later and reached first with a single before showing off his 80-grade speed with another stolen base. Willson Contreras drove him in two batters later. Scott's day ended with a tough strikeout on a curveball out of the zone.

So now that VSII has demonstrated his tools, how could the Cardinals clear up space for him to play every day? A seemingly simple solution to make the outfield less crowded would be to send Michael Siani to another organization, as sending him down to the minors would not add much future value since he has never been seen as a solid bat in need of more development. The Cardinals could reach out to a familiar trade partner, the Chicago White Sox, who just lost their highest-paid player, Andrew Benintendi, for the next month-plus due to a broken hand. Why would the historically bad Sox trade for a defensive specialist when Benintendi is facing a short absence?

Simply put, the Sox are going to be bad. Like, really bad, again. Benintendi has no value besides to Chicago except as a trade piece to a contender. With the injury, though, it is likely that he will not be ready for regular season action until the end of April, as he will have to ramp back up to big league pitching before heading back to the Sox. That leaves a month or so of games that the team will have to fill without any real options on their 40-man roster outside of Luis Robert Jr., who may also see himself in a new uniform at some point this season.

Siani is a proven major league-caliber defender, and with the Sox not having anything to play for this season, they can afford to give him as much playing time as possible until Benintendi returns. Once their outfielder returns, they could keep Siani in left field if they continue to hold on to Robert as their starting center fielder. Benintendi's return to the big league roster would allow him to recoup any of his value as he tries to work his way out of Chicago for a contender. If the Sox do intend to trade him, then they would at least retain a starting outfielder while attempting to put a major league product on the field.

The return for the Cardinals would not be anything spectacular, but they could possibly receive a low-level pitching prospect from a minor league system that has been rated highly for its pitching depth. If they cannot get a player back, cash or international bonus pool money could be on the table.

The current outfield depth in St. Louis could be seen as a positive, and fans may be hesitant to trade another young outfielder after their run of players performing at All-Star levels after a deal. That risk for Siani is extremely low, however, as his bat, if he hits his ceiling, would most likely still be below league average. With the Cardinals moving to a "youngry" transition, it would be in the team's best interest to see what he has at the major league level... if he continues to show he is ready.