The Cardinals have activated Corey Dickerson from the injured list and optioned Conner Capel to Triple-A to open a roster spot, per MLB.com’s John Denton (via Twitter).
Dickerson has been out for a little more than a month with a calf strain. Prior to the injury, Dickerson was off to a slow start. The outfielder was hitting just .194/.245/.286 through 106 plate appearances. Despite his current 50 wRC+, the veteran has a long track record of success in the bigs, with a 112 wRC+ over the span of his career.
Capel, 25, was up long enough to appear in nine games. He went just 3-for-17 at the plate with one walk and two strikeouts. In Triple-A, Capel is slashing .271/.361/.466 in 252 plate appearances. This is Capel’s third consecutive season appearing in the level of the minors.
I would have rather seen Dickerson DFA’d than Rondon. Rondon has been pretty good whether starting or out of the pen. Pitching depth is more important to me than a 3rd DH or 7th outfielder. This is a head scratcher for sure.
I think it’s more about money and previous pedigree, although I don’t think the Cards are going to give Dickerson too long of a leash before cutting him or trading him for peanuts if he can’t turn it around.
I want to see Dickerson playing a bit more with the Cardinals, before the Cardinals decide to trade or designate him for assignment. I still believe Dickerson can turn it around and be a productive player in the Cardinals lineup.
Francys, I think my issue with it is we have Gorman from the left side, Nootbaar, Donovan and even Burleson at AAA. Meanwhile, Angel is young and has lots of upside. My apologies if your comment was in jest.
I concur and his defense isn’t good enough to over come the slightest difference in hitting production. But the offense of late even with both goldy and Arenado hitting well (goldy at a mvp rate). I guessing they just tryna give him one more chance otherwise dfa his ass.
Agree totally with Rondon pitching is way more coveted than a .220 hitter
Wow,ok????
His window is pretty small. When Bader and Oneill get back, there is no room for Dickerson. Regardless of his salary or past production, Dickerson doesn’t deserve a spot over Donovan or Yepez.
Also, I liked what I saw of Capel. He’s solid depth.
DonOsbourne-Well, if Dickerson plays well what the Cardinals can do is sending back Gorman to the minors and letting Edman play once again regularly second base. Donovan can play shortstop or second base too.
If he plays well, I’d say a trade is more likely. Gorman needs some polish, but he’s played well enough to stick in the bigs. Dickerson would have to have a dramatic turn around to make himself more valuable than Gorman’s power potential. There are teams who would probably take a flyer on Dickerson.
Yes, you are probably right. However, ever since Edman was moved from second base he has not been hitting the same. He had an average over 300 and now he even lost the leadoff spot in the last few games.
I agree. I noticed the same trend last year when he would play the outfield. I’m all for using Sosa at SS more as well. His numbers this year are ugly, but some of that is due to irregular paying time.
The real question is not a roster issue. It’s coaching. How long can you stay with Jeff Alberts? Our guys come up from the minors hitting like crazy, then the league adjusts. Our hitters never do. One week ago we hit 4 HR in one inning off Kyle Gibson. This week he throws 7 scoreless giving up 2(!) hits. He or the Phillies coaches noticed a trend in our hitters. Our hitters and/or coaches made no adjustments. This has been a problem for years. It was about this time last year that Schildt got fed up and blew up at Alberts. The Cards got on a roll soon after. Eventually something has to be done.
You are totally right. We have been needing a hitting coach for such a long time. I don’t believe in Jeff Alberts hitting philosophy ever since 2016. Also, the moment that Schildt was let go, I thought the Cardinals were going to look for a new hitting coach as well. However, Mozeliak believes in Alberts so we will see if we have a chance to win the division or win a wild card spot or not making the playoffs.
Jeff Albert and Oli Marmol are basically best friends, so Jeff isn’t going anywhere without Oli. Send them both packing!!!
Donovan is terrible and I don’t just mean bad. He is not a good shortstop at all. He plays second and 3rd well and is serviceable in left. He can’t play first as he is worse than Martinez was.
Lol. That should solve their problems. Awesome to get your big free agent DH signing back who is hitting .194
He’s only one of four in today’s lineup batting under .200. Sigh….
Why?
All the talk of dumping Dickerson is on point, but it’s Pujols that should be getting a ticket out of town. He’s clogging a roster spot solely for nostalgic nonsense.
This is the elephant in the room. But id trust pujols more than Dickerson when needing a sac fly, hit or even hr. Pujols still better than all those rest of the rookies in a pressure situation at this time. They will dump Dickerson soon enough when everyone’s healthy.
A.. Yepez will stay. Dunno why that’s even in question.
B. Lars I will be sent down when O’Neil finally gets healthy.
C. Dickerson will be DFA’ed when bader gets healthy.
The club as a whole is failing to drive in runs. Arenado today strikes out when just needing a fly ball in outfield neither could Carlson… and no one had any trust Dickerson could do it. 0’fer in his return and really needed it when Chips were down. The June/July offensive rut is on. Uggh. Somebody needs to do something pretty dramatic pretty soon.
Pujols was 3-4 today and we won because of him. I agree he needs to be used more selectively but all the injuries have made him necessary.