Victor Scott II's cameo in the Dominican points to the end of his time with the Cardinals

The winter is underway and while some major league players are taking the month for some well-deserved time off, others headed out to different parts of the globe to fine tune their game. This strategy is mostly reserved for prospects, but struggling outfielder Victor Scott II decided to take the opportunity to prove his swing changes are working.

VSII opted to play in the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) and compete against some of the game's up-and-coming prospects or big leaguers looking to capture some attention. After his time with the St. Louis Cardinals was brief and unremarkable, Scott's trip to the Dominican was supposed to be used as a way to get back into the good graces of the Cardinals' coaching staff. Unfortunately, Scott's time in LIDOM has already ceased as the speedy outfielder was not able to improve on his .193 MLB batting average, slashing a miserable .129/.289/.161 through 12 games.

Victor Scott II's continued offensive issues have all signs pointing to the end of his tenure with Cardinals

Spring Training injuries forced the Cardinals to promote the 23-year-old Victor Scott II to the major league roster at the start of the 2024 season. At the time, VSII had not even played at the Triple-A level and while this type of promotion is not extremely rare, a jump from Double-A to the majors is usually reserved for top prospects with advanced offensive tools. To little surprise, the light-hitting outfielder struggled mightily with the bat and his MLB debut season ended after 53 games and a .179 batting average.

Never known for his bat, the expectation was that Scott would be able to contribute with the glove enough to be an everyday player in the Cardinals lineup. The 2025 season was Scott's chance to throw the glove-first accusations wayside as he got a 138 game opportunity to show he can handle big league arms. The year was an improvement, but he was still 25% below league-average by measure of wRC+ despite stealing 34 bases. Scott was still solid with the glove, which gave him the leeway to be the starting centerfielder to begin the 2026 season.

The Cardinals had apparently seen plenty of Scott early into the year, hitting well under .200 going into June before St. Louis had enough and demoted him to Memphis. While in Triple-A, the hope was that Scott would unleash something with the bat after spending each offseason working to refine his swing. That never happened as the offensive struggles continued and his return to St. Louis meant doing so as a defensive replacement or pinch runner. Now, heading into 2027, his replacement Nathan Church is the incumbent taking the reps in center field.

Scott's short stay in the Dominican, continued organizational praise for Church, and a solid crop of center field prospects may mean we have seen the last of VSII in a Cardinals uniform. The work ethic has never been a problem as Scott was posting videos working on his swing at Driveline before heading out this winter, but something just does not seem to click in the actual game. For a Cardinals team that has little need for a defensive specialist, we could see VSII become a non-tender candidate and playing the 2027 season in a different organization.

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