The Cardinals announced on Friday that they have signed outfielder Carlos Peguero to a minor league contract (via MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch, on Twitter). The Proformance client will receive an invitation to Major League Spring Training.
Peguero, 29 next month, split the 2015 season between the Rangers and Red Sox organizations, seeing action in 30 games with Texas. Peguero batted just .186 in his 84 plate appearances with the Rangers, but he also posted a .310 on-base percentage and slugged .414 thanks to the fact that eight of his 13 hits went for extra bases (four doubles, four homers). Peguero is a legitimate power threat, as evidenced by his career .276/.345/.528 batting line at Triple-A. He belted 30 homers in the minors as recently as 2014 and hit a combined 25 between the Majors and Triple-A last season. Making consistent contact, however, is an issue for Peguero, who has punched out in 39.5 percent of his Major League plate appearances and has a 31.7 percent strikeout rate in parts of five Triple-A seasons.
Bad choice they all ready a good team
There’s no such thing as a bad minor league deal.
Nice addition. A left handed slugger who can play all outfield positions well. Just in case the Holliday, Grichuk, Pham, and Piscotty quad, all right handers, either slump or are injured. An under the radar guy who might just provide some production.
Ah, I was wondering how the Cardinals were going to solve their lack of pop. I feel much better now…. /s
Cards really don’t need more pop. When Grichuk totals 30 HRs, Piscotty upper 20’s, Pham 15 or so, Adams near 20, Moss upper 20’s, Holliday around 20, Wong near 20, Peralta too, and Carpenter upper 20s, they will have plenty of power.
@spudchukar You aren’t serious are you? Do you truly think 1B is going to combine for 40hrs and CF is going to combine for 45hrs? Piscotty and Wong don’t have the pop that you suggest, and Carp was a 10hr/year guy until last year (he’s 30). I’m afraid your optimism is laughable.
All Cards’ fans know that Wong has the best bat speed on the team. Carpenter’s power was late to develop, he hit 15 HRs in the last couple of months in 2014, then 28 last year.
Piscotty homered 7 times in 233 ABs, posted an .853 OPS, then added 3 more in the post-season sporting a 1.444 OPS.
Grichuk totaled 17 homers in 323 ABs with an .877 OPS, and Pham could easily add 10-15 more.
Every projection I have seen predict Adams and Moss to post 20+ HRs in 2016. And Holliday was a perennial 20 HR guy until his injury shortened 2015 season.
So laugh all you want, the power is there, under appreciated, and ready to continue and break out.
I won’t call it laughable but I think you’re assuming a lot and being overly optimistic. Most of those guys are yet to prove they can accomplish such feats over a full season of work (mostly because they’ve never had a full season of work). I get what you’re saying about Piscotty but I used to say the same thing about Adams. He hit 17 HR’s in 296 AB’s in 2013 so I assumed that given a full season of AB’s, he would be a 30 HR guy. He proved me wrong by hitting only 15 in full time work the next year. MLB pItchers find those weaknesses eventually and exploit them. That’s why most position players go through what’s called the “sophomore slump”.
There is no way Moss hits 20 dingers. Nor does Holliday. Grichuck won’t touch 30 either.
The only thing to keep Moss from 20 HRs will be ABs. He has already totaled 31, so 20 is hardly optimistic. Holliday may fall short of 20, but not by a lot.
Grichuk only has to repeat his 2015 HR rate to blow past 30. He is a year older, wiser, for the first time in his career he will be guaranteed a starting shot.
There is no evidence that supports that 2nd year players as a whole regress in their second campaign. It is a myth, and you are only helping to perpetuate it.
Well first off, I didn’t say “as a whole”. Obviously not all position players regress in their second year and many pitchers won’t regress at all until they start to lose their stuff. I said “most position players” and there is evidence out there to support it. Feel free to look it up as I have no inclination or time to dig it up just to prove one person wrong. However, if you’re so inclined, please, feel free to post evidence that most position players don’t go through a sophomore slump and I will gladly consider it.
For the record, I hope you’re right. I’m a Cards fan myself. But I’ve found that if you’re expectations are too high, you only end up disappointed.
And we really do need more pop, sure we may have a few guys capable of hitting double digit homers, but we finished 25th in the league last year in homers, 24th in RBI’s and 23rd in slugging. We need that one guy that opposing teams fear every time. That guy that can turn the game around in one at bat and is a threat to so every time up.
Every guy in the Cards’ line-up with the exception of Molina fits the description of a guy who is capable of walking up to the plate and homering, which is much more dangerous than one, one-dimensional kinda guy who can’t do anything but provide pop.
Not sure which cardinals team you’ve been watching but, Carpenter is unlikely to repeat, adams and pham haven’t proven to be a power threat, wong isnt a 20 homer anything, piscotty is a wild card (I hope he hits 20 but i wont be surprised if he doesn’t).
That leaves us with Grichuck, Holliday, Peralta and Moss.
Grichuck power is for real.
Holliday has power but is trending down.
Moss has been a 30 homer threat so he too is a wild card.
And Peralta is more of a 15 homer guy.
The crds are my team but power isn’t thier asset.
Watch and see in 2016.
Yep. This will put some fear into the hearts of those Cubs for sure! ….. :-/
Surprised, the Cardinals have two first basemen Matt Adams and Brandon Moss. So,he is likely to be a utility player and sometimes can play right field.
He is much more an outfielder, rather than a first baseman/left fielder guy. He is above average at all outfield positions, and has committed 1 error in 92 MLB games.
Peguero is 6’5″ and 250 pounds. He’s played 16 career games in center field, most of which came back in 2011. Not really sure where you’re getting the “above average at all three outfield positions, but he’s a pure corner guy, even if the Rangers had to stick him in CF for two innings last year.
Granted his center field opportunities would come in a pinch, especially since Grichuk and Pham are both excellent at that position, but according to Baseball-Reference Peguero rates above average at both of the corner outfield positions. But the point was that he isn’t just a plodder who is a downgrade in the outfield, his minor league and major league stats do not support that.
Oh Wow !! Who the
Doubt he makes the team to start the year but always wanted to see him have success in the bigs, guy hits bombs
Cardinals long term solution to the DH coming to the NL.
Where was Billy Eppler? This is a minor league deal Angels needed.
Lol, This guy is in No Way a long term solution to DH in NL, that is some of Witty sarcasm though – I like it