Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Cardinals Acquire Matt Adams Via Waiver Claim

By | at

1:50pm: The Cardinals have announced the waiver claim. Fowler has been moved to the 60-day DL to open space on the 40-man roster, while corner infielder Patrick Wisdom has been optioned to Triple-A Memphis.

1:36pm: Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (on Twitter) that Adams is headed to St. Louis via waiver claim, meaning there’s no trade at play here. Rather, the Nationals will simply offload the remainder of his salary on the Cardinals in the deal. Adams is still owed about $877K of his $4MM salary through season’s end.

1:24pm: The Cardinals have agreed to a deal with the Nationals that will bring first baseman/outfielder Matt Adams back to St. Louis, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (on Twitter). Between this move from the Cards and the reported impending deal sending Daniel Murphy to the division-rival Cubs, it appears that the Nationals have embarked on a late-August sale. General manager Mike Rizzo has called a press conference for 3pm ET in which he will presumably address these and any other deals that have been made with the media.

Matt Adams | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

With this trade, the 29-year-old Adams returns to the organization with which he cut his teeth as a pro player. The Cards selected Adams in the 23rd round of the 2009 draft and watched him eventually blossom into a solid Major League hitter across parts of six seasons in the organization. However, St. Louis flipped Adams to the Braves early in the 2017 season in order to loosen an infield logjam. Though Adams produced at a solid clip in Atlanta, he was non-tendered in the offseason and eventually signed a one-year, $4MM deal in Washington.

Thus far in the 2018 season, Adams has produced numbers that are roughly in line with his career marks. Through 277 trips to the plate — nearly all of which have come against right-handed pitching, given Adams’ deficiencies against left-handers — he’s logged a quality .257/.332/.510 slash with 18 home runs and nine doubles.

It’s not clear just yet how the Cardinals will utilize Adams. He’s limited to first base or the occasional dalliance into left field, and the Cards already have options at both of those positions in the form of Matt Carpenter and Marcell Ozuna, respectively. But Carpenter is capable of bouncing all over the infield and could see time at second base or third base in the event that the Nationals wish to get Adams some time at first base against right-handed opponents.

That’s perhaps the key element of the Cardinals’ acquisition of Adams. Prior to this deal, the only lefty bats on the roster were Carpenter, light-hitting second baseman Kolten Wong and backup infielder Greg Garcia. Switch-hitting Dexter Fowler gives the Cards another lefty bat when healthy, but he’s currently on the DL and is mired in the worst season of his professional career. Adding Adams will give the Cards a notable lefty bat both off the bench and against righty starters, helping to balance out the lineup and further fueling their recent surge under interim skipper Mike Shildt.

While Adams will surely receive a warm welcome in his return to St. Louis, the reunion could prove to be short-lived. He was non-tendered last winter in his final offseason of arbitration eligibility and will finish out the 2018 campaign with more than six years of big league service time. As such, he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and free to sign with any team he chooses. It’s possible that the Cards will have interest in retaining a slugger they know well and clearly like as a player, but Adams will be able to field interest from 29 other teams as well.

newest oldest

Comments

        • well feather, you see … Carson Kelly is a more valuable trade chip than you you would want to give for a rental player this late in the season. Especially one the other team gave up for nothing in exchange except a lil salary relief. That is what the lol was for.

  5. Wonder if Harper will end up going since they’re serious about trading people (finally)

    1

  8. So Adams replaces Wisdom for the rest of the month, which is fine. I don’t think this moves the needle much.

    1

    • A lefty power bat off the bench fills the biggest need we have and could possibly hope to fill at this stage in the season. Plus, it is a popular move in the clubhouse. They are happy to have him back and he is happy to be back and that ain’t nothing in itself.

      1

  11. How has Adams been doing this season? Could be a solid bench hitter for us and a good backup for Marp.

    • Yeah I bet he’s just a left handed power bat nothing too special maybe play him in the OF once in a while

      • I doubt he’ll play outfield for the Cardinals now. Very little chance.

        1

        • Even Martinez is a better outfielder than Adams. Besides, unlike Martinez, Adams actually plays a pretty good first base.

          Anyway, I see him getting the majority of the starts against right-handed starters at 1B with Carpenter moving to 3B and Gyorko on the bench.

  13. Man as a Phillies fan you have to love the timing of these moves. We face Roark, Strasburg, and Scherzer in the upcoming series. Murphy is usually a huge pain in our ass (big hits) and Adams has been as well this season.

    1

    • I hope you guys loose anyway. I hate Philly fans of anything. It’s like they gathered all the sore losers and poor sports all together in one city.

      1

  14. If the Nats truly want to sell off, we wouldn’t be opposed to getting Scherzer back home.

    3

  16. I am a braves fan but would be upset if I were a nat fan. Why give up in the week east so soon ? The braves have a very young team with a rough schedule the rest of the way and a very suspect bull pen. The Phillies as well are not a powerhouse.

  17. While getting Adams is a good move, I am surprised the Red Birds didn’t block Murphy. He is a force. A liability in the field for sure, but the Cubs can hide him in shifts, and remove him late in games. I really believed the Cards could catch the Cubbies, doubtful now.

    • They didn’t want to risk having Murphy dumped on them when they have no need for him.

      The Cardinals can still catch the Cubs simply because the Cubs still have a really lousy starting rotation.

      1

      • Lester, Hendricks, Hamels and Quintana is NOT a lousy rotation.. You are terrible at facts.

        1

    • Wait a minute … so what you are saying is that you really believed the Cardinals could catch the Cubs but now that the Cubs have Daniel Murphy it is game over? That is an inexplicably dumb comment … lol @ you sir … lol!

  20. Didn’t the relationship between Adams and the cards sour leading to his trade? Seems like an odd pickup if that was the case. Maybe it was Matheney related or am I just a dumbass?

    • I don’t remember that being the case at all. I think it was more just that Matt Carpenter moved to 1st and Adams was kind of blocked because of his lack of versatility.

      3

    • Matheny was the dumbass who tried to put that clod out in left field when he had Tommy Pham just sitting there getting pissed in Memphis.

      Adams needs to stick to first base/bench bat.

  22. Finally Nats! Most underachieving team of the Decade,time to rebuild!

  23. It’s stupid how happy I am, just because I love him, not because this improves the team that much. He’s great off the bench, though.

    • Because Adams actually has defensive value (at least when he’s not being shoehorned into the outfield).

      2

  25. So crazy how a week ago Matt Adams was getting standing O’s at Busch last week and now he’s back on the Cardinals

    2

  26. Right? I was at the walkoff game on the 13th, I was watching BP and was like who is 15 on the Nats hitting these bombs, Oh its Adams looking slim and healthy. I like the pick up, could be a big surprise. He made me nervous when he came up as a PH against us, maybe he will make others nervous when he comes up for us. I’m sure Kershaw is scared lol

    1

  30. I like the move… go with what you know and plus the additional salary isn’t that bad. Seems like that Nats are waving the white towel. They should of had Harper on waivers as soon as August 1. They still had ideas of playoffs at that point and I feel that would have been the easiest way to get him to the august trade deadline.

    • They did, he was claimed so they pulled him back when they couldn’t work a deal.

  32. Where are all you crap talking Cubs fans at now? Before the season you were all over Cardinals comments then disappeared when the Cubs had a poor start. You came back once they got it together, and even more so as the Cards struggled and throughout the crap w/ Fowler and Matheny. But, since the Cards got hot and the Cubs have started to struggle again … nothing! It never interested me to go over there and try to kick you when you are down, didn’t even occur to me. I do find it amusing though that you love to dish it out but seemingly can’t take it as evidenced by your absence… you know who you are. Truth is we had been up for so long we almost felt sorry for you throughout their struggles. We wanted our rival to be relevant so it seemed petty and childish to go over and crap talk you. But you have spent so much time watching us succeed bitterly hoping somebody else would beat us that you clearly don’t know when to stop or how to act like you have been there before even when you just have. It’s jealousy pure and simple, you want to be Cardinal Nation because you have spent way to many Octobers watching the St. Louis Cardinals on TV hopefull they would lose that you hate us because you ain’t us and 1 WS hasn’t changed that. So here is to hoping y’all can go right back into that aww shucks lovable loser routine you do so well and just stay there.

Leave a Reply

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top