The Cardinals have optioned second baseman Kolten Wong to Triple-A Memphis, the team announced tonight. The move will clear a spot for the activation of shortstop Jhonny Peralta from the disabled list — a move that will become official tomorrow. Peralta has spent the entire season to date on the disabled list due to a fractured left thumb.
General manager John Mozeliak revealed last week that upon Peralta’s activation from the disabled list, he would serve as the club’s everyday third baseman, with Matt Carpenter sliding over to second base. The shuffled defensive alignment will allow hot-hitting Aledmys Diaz to remain the Cardinals’ everyday shortstop, but it also vastly reduces Wong’s opportunity for playing time. Rather than reduce Wong to a bench role, the club has elected to send him to Memphis to get everyday at-bats.
While Wong’s production this season certainly merits the demotion — he’s batting just .222/.306/.286 on the season — the decision nonetheless had to be a difficult one for a Cardinals front office that just awarded Wong with a five-year, $25.5MM contract extension three months ago. Many pundits raised an eyebrow at the extension at the time given Wong’s second-half decline in 2015, but his overall .262/.321/.386 slash line from last season was sound, relative to his peers, and as a former first-round pick that batted .280/.343/.434 in the first half of that 2015 season, there was reason to believe that he could make some strides in terms of consistency and deliver a better overall performance in 2016. That, however, clearly has not been the case.
Diaz, on the other hand, has been an opposite tale. Initially signed to a four-year, $8MM contract as an international free agent out of Cuba, Diaz floundered throughout his early minor league tenure and was actually outrighted off the 40-man roster last July. Any club could’ve had him for the remainder of the $8MM on that deal, but he instead cleared waivers and remained in the Cardinals organization. While that seemed somewhat inconsequential at the time, it’s proven to be a godsend for the Redbirds in 2016, as Diaz forced his way onto the roster early in the season in the wake of Peralta’s injury and has subsequently batted .328/.359/.547 with eight homers in 206 plate appearances. While Diaz has been a liability with the glove — 12 errors, -5.4 UZR — his bat was enough for the Cardinals to designate presumptive Peralta stopgap Ruben Tejada for assignment recently and will now keep him in the team’s everyday plans.
The return of Peralta likely means reduced playing time for utility man Jedd Gyorko, whom the Cardinals picked up in an offseason swap that sent Jon Jay to the Padres. Gyorko had been serving as a platoon partner for the struggling Wong, but with Carpenter, Diaz and Peralta now set to receive regular plate appearances, it may become more difficult to work him into the lineup with regularity.
This was a move that had to be made. Cardinals need to stay in the race and Wong just was not producing.
Best of luck to Kolten…but more so to the Cards front office.
Sending Wong down had to happen. He will probably be there awhile too with the crowded infield situation. Please leave him there until he develops some patience and stops trying to hit a home run every at bat.
Na he won’t be there a while. He will be traded for another change of scenery guy next month unless someone gets injured. Perhaps for someone like Danny Santana of Minnesota.
The twins don’t really need a second baseman though; Dozier has struggled this season but he’s a good player and I don’t think Wong really fits anywhere else in the infield. Plus, why would the Twins take on all that money?
I wish the white sox had the balls to send some players down. Manager too!
The Sox just need to fire Robin and Kenny. See how good of an organization they’d be in 5 years if that happened
Where are all the Cardinals fans that thought this extension was genius
Now they need to send Wacha down to get right and bring up Alex Reyes.
No brainer. If the Redbirds are serious about trying to compete in the WC race this year, they have to give Matheny the best 25-man possible a.s.a.p. Kolten Wong isn’t one of those 25. IMO, the redbirds aren’t going to be competing in the WC race in September this season (unless they make several significant trades.).
The Cards despite the pitching struggles that seem to be on the rise are still only 1 game out of the second wild card spot. Hello????
They have a great chance of making the playoffs with better starts and the addition now of Peralta and Tommy Pham coming soon – not to mention Reyes will soon be ready if his AAA starts are any indication.
Gritchuk needs to start performing or Pham will take his spot.
This whole, “if things go well they should be sure to compete” thing gets said constantly. Every single team they’re going to be competing with has injured players “who should come back and help” or under performing players “that can make the team better if they just turn it around”.
I think a lot of the Birds pitching problems can be related to the defense. Diaz at short hurts them.
Pham was sent down to AAA when he came off the DL. If anyone is taking Grichuk’s spot, it’s either Moss or Hazelbaker.
And here go the Cards(says an angry Cub fan
Apparently the Cardinal luck on transactions ended after they lost the Houston database!
I lol’d at this
Heyward?
They offered him at or over 200 million last year. Heyward just looked at the offers and thought he’s going to make a lot of money for a long time so he wanted to go to Chicago’s young core.
It was definitely the right move, and possibly a blessing in disguise. Wong wont flounder in the minors forever, I’m sure he’ll be back. This would be a great time to experiment with him IMO. Why not try a positional move to the OF? Holliday’s contract is up after next season. Could a move to the OF benefit him? He’s a decent 2B but I think he could be a dynamic addition in CF with his above average range factor, given he could field it of course.
I certainly wouldn’t be upset seeing Wong experimenting at other positions to provide more versatility.
He’s got $25 million reasons to go down and play.
The Cardinals is a smart organization. These are not desperate moves, They follow a plan. They let the young players come up and prove themselves and don’t overpay old players to block positive team improvement.
wong got overpaid, hasn’t proved himself and got sent back to regroup. gritchuk, you’re next
They will have a longer leash for Gritchuk because of his power upside, but if he gets hurt again they might just move on. Tommy Pham stays healthy he is more consistent than Gritchuk and could get more playing time. Hazelbaker, it’s been fun but it’s time to go back to minors.
Now if the Cardinals truly wanted their best lineup, they’d play an infield of Adams (1B), Diaz (2B), Peralta (SS), and Carpenter (3B) against righties, and Carpenter (1B), Gyorko (2B), Diaz (SS), and Peralta (3B) against lefties. Playing two other guys away from their best positions just to accommodate the worst defender on the team doesn’t make any sense for a team that’s fighting for a playoff spot.
So your solution is to not have a single everyday person at an infield position? I hope that never catches on. Repetition is the easiest way to get better on defense and you won’t get much repetition if your entire infield is constantly in flux depending on who is pitching for the other team.
Well, 70 percent of the time your infield would be the same, because RHP make up 70 % of all starters. But it seems silly to move everybody around rather than just have a platoon partner for Adams/Gyorko.
Your choice of bats makes sense though to Ray Ray’s point, why not just platoon Adams and Gyorko at 1B and have Diaz, Peralta, and Carpenter play every day at 2B, SS, and 3B?
Actually, Adams is hitting LHP’ pretty well this year. .364 right now. Totally unlike his career numbers vs lefties.
I am surprised more cardinals fans do not relate a) Diaz’s -5.4 UZR and b) the loss of Heyward’s 20 UZR to more of their struggles. Yeah Wong was hitting just .220, but ‘scoring’ runs is not the cardinals problem
Exactly; defense counts. Diaz isn’t good defensively, Peralta is actually a better shortstop but they’re going to have to play him at third because Diaz doesn’t have the arm for the hot corner. It would seem that Gyorko at 3rd, Peralta at short and Diaz at second with Carpenter at first is the best option, right? Gyorko played a lot of third in the minors and definitely has the arm and hands for the position. Unfortunately, that leaves Adams without a spot…it’s a tricky situation.
Why get rid of Adams? He’s doing well offensively this year against both RH and LHP! He’s not the problem.
shortstops normally have/need a stronger arm than third basemen
Don’t miss Howard and his 220 batting average one little bit. Check Stephen Piscotty’s stats. Don’t need that 200 million dollar albatross on the Cardinals.
I don’t doubt piscotty’s value at all (always liked him more than grichuk), but last year you had both Pisc and Jeyhey.
The Cubs picked up whatever defensive value heyward had and the cards … ‘Don’t have him anymore.’
I relate the inflections of both pitching staffs to moves ‘like’ this (the Cubs also swapped Castro for zobrist)…
* I am talking defense pitching only … It is pretty clear both teams can score runs
Defense ‘and’ pitching (sorry, I forgot this chat does not show the ‘plus’ symbol
What’s the chance of the Cardinals selling high on Diaz the way the Red Sox sold high on Iglesias? After all, he was outrighted off the 40-man last year. Not really familiar with him, what’s his numbers when he comes back to Earth or long term projection?
Will the Cardinals be Buyers, or sellers at the trade deadline??? It obvious the Cardinals need a Star veteran pitcher’s help. However, the general manager is always a second place finisher in trades and free agent pursuit. It’s beginning to show. I believe his work toward making a positive block buster, positive move before the the trading deadline this year, will determine his fate as the Cardinals GM for the future