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Author: Steve Adams

Giants Reportedly Planning To Decline Evan Longoria’s Option

By | at October 10, 2022 4:47pm CDT

The Giants hold a $13MM club option over third baseman Evan Longoria — the final possible season on a six-year, $100MM guaranteed deal that Longoria originally signed with the Rays. Because of a hefty $5MM buyout on the option, it’s actually “only” a net $8MM decision for the upcoming season. Still, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that the Giants are planning to opt for the buyout, which would make Longoria a free agent for the first time in his career.

That doesn’t necessarily close the books on Longoria’s time in San Francisco, however. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said last week there’s “absolutely” a place for Longoria on next year’s Giants, even as the team strives to get younger on the whole. Per the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea, Longoria is open to negotiating a return at a lesser rate. That meshes with Nightengale’s report, which indicates that Longoria’s preferences in free agency would be San Francisco, Tampa Bay or Arizona.

With the decision at a net $8MM, simply picking up Longoria’s option would be plenty defensible. Despite celebrating his 37th birthday just this past Friday, he remains a productive hitter, having enjoyed a renaissance with the bat over the past couple seasons. In 589 trips to the plate dating back to Opening Day 2021, Longoria has turned in a .252/.336/.466 batting line with 27 homers, 30 doubles, a 25.6% strikeout rate and a 10.5% walk rate. That said, his exit velocity, hard-hit rate, strikeout rate and walk rate in 2022 all took a step back from their 2021 levels, and this year’s overall offensive output was down a bit from last year.

As one would expect for a player moving into his late 30s, Longoria has also seen his defensive ratings begin to slip. Early in his career, he was one of baseball’s best defensive players at any position, and Longoria managed to sustain slightly above-average grades at the hot corner even in his mid-30s, posting positive Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average marks as recently as 2020. In 2022, he posted a -4 DRS mark and was a scratch defender, per both UZR and OAA.

Even with the slight downturn in 2022 production on both sides of the ball, Longoria remained productive with the bat. He could be particularly adept in a more limited role that shields him from top-tier righties but gives him plenty of time against left-handed pitching. Over the past two seasons, Longoria has tormented southpaws with a .295/.379/.536 batting line in 211 trips to the plate. His .229/.307/.429 line against same-handed pitchers is more pedestrian but still roughly league average output.

A more sheltered role could have the added benefit of limiting Longoria’s reps slightly in an effort to keep him healthy. Zaidi alluded to that last week, rhetorically asking “one of the questions for us with Longo, and it’s a question for him as well, at this point in his career, what’s the appropriate workload and what’s the appropriate role?” (link via Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News). Longoria has spent a notable chunk of time on the injured list in each of the past two seasons, appearing in just over half the Giants games (170 of 324).

Assuming Longoria does head back to the open market, he’ll be one of the better players available in the third base class. Nolan Arenado would obviously be the prize of the position if he opted out of the final five years of his deal with St. Louis. Otherwise, the class is comprised of veterans who could be brought back on team options (i.e. Longoria, Justin Turner and Josh Harrison) and multi-positional types (like Brandon Drury and Jace Peterson).

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San Francisco Giants

Hoyer: Cubs Will Make Qualifying Offer To Willson Contreras

By | at October 10, 2022 3:22pm CDT

Confirming what most rightly expected to be a foregone conclusion, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said at today’s end-of-season press conference that the team will “definitely” make a qualifying offer to free-agent catcher Willson Contreras (Twitter link via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). That much was widely assumed from the moment the team surprisingly opted against trading Contreras prior to the Aug. 2 deadline.

An exact amount on this year’s qualifying offer, which is set annually at the average of the game’s 125 highest-paid players, has not yet been determined. Last year’s qualifying offer clocked in at $18.4MM, and in 2020 it was set at $18.9MM.

Any player rejecting a qualifying offer is then subject to draft-pick compensation, meaning a team choosing to sign him will be required to surrender at least one pick in the following year’s draft (in addition to potentially forfeiting resources from its international bonus pool. Teams that receive revenue sharing would forfeit their third-highest selection to sign a “qualified” free agent. Non-revenue sharing, non-luxury tax paying teams lose their second-highest pick and $500K of international bonus pool space. The six teams that paid the luxury tax this year — Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, Padres — would forfeit their second- and fifth-highest picks as well as $1MM of international pool space. The Cubs, meanwhile, would receive a compensatory pick between Competitive Balance Round B and Round 3 of next summer’s draft — typically in the No. 75 overall range.

The Cubs will still have the remainder of this month and an exclusive five-day window to negotiate with Contreras following the completion of the World Series (as all teams do with their pending free agents). That said, Contreras, who’ll be 31 next May, has been vocal about his desire to remain in Chicago for several years now. No extension has materialized.

In all likelihood, Contreras will hit the open market and sign with a new club — presumably one seeking more offense behind the plate. That’s not to disparage Contreras’ glove; he boasts plus arm strength and one of the fastest pop-times in MLB (1.93 seconds, per Statcast, good for 11th out of 83 catchers in 2022). Contreras, however, generally draws average to below-average marks for framing pitches, and Baseball Prospectus dinged him slightly in 2022 for his work blocking pitches in the dirt (although that was an anomaly and he’s typically graded better than average in that regard).

Broadly speaking, Contreras is far from a liability behind the plate, particularly when it comes to controlling the running game. He doesn’t grade as well when it comes to stealing strikes for his pitchers (and for ensuring that borderline strikes are accurately called), but he’s still a quality option behind the dish — particularly when considering that few of his positional peers can match his work with the bat. Contreras hit .243/.349/.466 with 22 home runs, 23 doubles and a pair of triples in 2022.

Contreras’ 132 wRC+, indicating that he was 32% better than the league-average hitter at the plate, ranked fifth among the 70 catchers who took at least 100 plate appearances in 2022, only narrowly trailing Adley Rutschman (133) and Tyler Stephenson (134) for third on the list behind Contreras’ own brother, William, and Toronto’s Danny Jansen. Given that the average catcher was 11% worse than the league-average hitter, Contreras was about about 43% better at the plate than the average backstop, by measure of wRC+. The only catchers to produce more round-trippers than Contreras were Cal Raleigh, Will Smith and Salvador Perez.

Precisely where Contreras lands in free agency, at this point, is anyone’s guess. He won’t know how things will play out until he gauges interest around the league, but there’s no shortage of teams that could look to upgrade behind the plate. Only seven teams — Braves, Jays, Phillies, A’s, Cubs, Dodgers, Mariners — received offense that was better than that of a league-average hitter from the catcher position in their lineup this season, so even with draft compensation attached, Contreras should command a strong multi-year deal.

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Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2023

By | at October 10, 2022 12:30pm CDT

Matt Swartz has created a model to project salaries for arbitration eligible players, which we’ve been publishing at MLB Trade Rumors for 12 years.

In the baseball industry, teams and agents determine arbitration salaries by identifying comparable players. To project the entire arbitration class in this way would take a massive amount of time and effort. So, Matt has developed an algorithm to project arbitration salaries that looks at the player’s playing time, position, role, and performance statistics while accounting for inflation. The performance of comparable players matters, but our system is not directly selecting individual comps for each individual player.

As a disclaimer, it should be emphasized that our projections are not to be used as a scorecard for the agent and team on an individual player level. A player doing better or worse than our projection isn’t indicative of anything. Our arbitration projections are created as a tool for our readers to get a general idea of a team’s payroll situation.

The service time figures, listed in parentheses below, are official. However, there is not yet an established Super Two cutoff. That could lead to a few late entrants being added to the list. It’s also worth noting that contracts signed prior to the non-tender deadline aren’t generally considered to be normal arbitration comparables; contracts signed prior to that deadline can be skewed by light offers that are presented to borderline non-tender candidates in take-it-or-leave-it fashion (with “leave it,” in such instances, being a non-tender). That’s not universal to all pre-tender deals but is frequently applicable.

If you find MLBTR’s arbitration projections useful, please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Onto the numbers…

Angels (7)

Astros (9)

Athletics (6)

Blue Jays (13)

Braves (6)

Brewers (18)

Cardinals (11)

Cubs (10)

Diamondbacks (9)

Dodgers (12)

Giants (13)

Guardians (9)

Marlins (12)

Mariners (11)

Mets (8)

Nationals (10)

Orioles (7)

Padres (10)

Phillies (7)

Pirates (6)

Rangers (6)

Rays (19)

Red Sox (11)

Reds (11)

Rockies (6)

Royals (11)

Tigers (12)

Twins (12)

White Sox (8)

Yankees (14)

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Arbitration Projection Model MLBTR Originals Newsstand

Phillies Sign Manager Rob Thomson To Two-Year Extension

By | at October 10, 2022 11:32am CDT

Rob Thomson is “interim” Phillies manager no more. The Phillies announced today that Thomson has been signed to a two-year extension covering the 2023-24 seasons, shedding his “interim” label and installing him as the team’s official manager.

Thomson, 59, opened the season as the bench coach to then-manager Joe Girardi but was promoted when the Phils fired Girardi on the heels of an ugly 22-29 start to their season. That early June dismissal came as owner John Middleton sought to shake up the clubhouse and breathe new life into that had spent more than half a billion dollars in free agents over the past several seasons. Despite having inked the likes of Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, however, the Phils looked to be on their way to an 11th consecutive postseason miss when Girardi was ousted.

The key phrase there is “looked to be on their way,” because in short order under Thomson, the Phillies not only found their stride and played back into contention — they posted one of MLB’s best records from June on, fought into the National League Wild Card round, and quickly ousted the NL Central-champion Cardinals in a two-game sweep on the road.

The Phillies went 65-46 under Thomson from the day he took the reins, and the pair of postseason wins — one a dramatic, ninth-inning comeback against a quality Cardinals bullpen — only furthered Thomson’s cause. Now after more than three decades of working in various front office and coaching capacities, Thomson will land his first long-term managerial post. He’s previously coached in the minors with the Tigers, held high-ranking player development positions in the Yankees organization, and accumulated more than two decades as a first base coach, third base coach and bench coach between the big leagues and the minors.

Even with the interim skippers being elevated both in Philadelphia and in Anaheim, there are five current managerial positions that are either vacant or occupied by an interim skipper throughout the league. The Rangers, Royals, White Sox, Blue Jays and Marlins will all need to name new managers, and it’s possible that postseason results could yet dictate another ousting or two.

Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported the move was coming just minutes before the formal announcement (Twitter link).

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Guardians’ Nick Sandlin Will Miss Remainder Of Postseason

By | at October 10, 2022 9:47am CDT

Guardians righty Nick Sandlin has been diagnosed with a strain in his upper back/shoulder and will miss the remainder of the postseason, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Cleveland will need to swap him out for the next round of postseason play. Starter Aaron Civale, who took the ball in the final regular-season game and was thus left off the Wild Card roster, will likely be added, though depending on other moves the team wishes to make, right-hander Cody Morris could be a candidate to join the fray as well. The team will have until tomorrow morning to make a formal decision on who’ll take Sandlin’s roster spot.

The loss of Sandlin is a notable one for Cleveland, even if the 25-year-old —  like much of the Guardians’ roster — is far from a household name. The 2018 second-rounder made his big league debut in 2021, when he tossed 33 2/3 innings of 2.94 ERA ball, and has had similar success in 2022.

While this year’s 22.8% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate were steps back from 2021 levels (34% and 12.1%, respectively), Sandlin also saw his ground-ball rate spike from 41.7% to a whopping 55.9%. He tossed 44 innings of 2.25 ERA ball out of the Cleveland ‘pen, including a sparkling 1.11 ERA and 26-to-6 K/BB ratio over his final 24 1/3 frames.

The Guardians haven’t formally announced the injury, a treatment plan or a potential timeline, but they’ll likely provide more details in the days to come. For now, what’s immediately clear is that their powerhouse bullpen will take at least a slight hit in their American League Division Series date with the Yankees. The bullpen — and the pitching staff in general — will still remain an unquestioned strength, however. Even with Sandlin sidelined, Cleveland can turn to righties Emmanuel Clase, James Karinchak, Trevor Stephan and lefty Sam Hentges in leverage spots — all four of whom had ERAs of 2.69 or better and strikeout rates of 28.4% or higher.

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Cleveland Guardians

GM Nick Krall Discusses Reds’ Roster

By | at October 7, 2022 9:03pm CDT

The Reds’ .383 winning percentage in 2022 ranks as the sixth-worst mark in the franchise’s 122-year history. Over the past 24 months, they’ve traded away former mainstays Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray, Jesse Winker, Eugenio Suarez, Raisel Iglesias, Tucker Barnhart and Amir Garrett. Once names like Donovan Solano, Mike Minor and Hunter Strickland formally become free agents after the postseason, the Reds will be left with one of the league’s youngest rosters. When addressing the team’s ugly season yesterday, general manager Nick Krall suggested that the roster will remain one of the youngest in the league next year (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

“We’re going to come into (2023) in a similar place that we are right now,” said Krall. While the GM suggested the team will “try to make improvements,” his subsequent comments about how everyone will need to earn a spot on next year’s roster in Spring Training don’t exactly portend an active winter on the player acquisition front.

“I don’t know if we have a ‘this is going to absolutely be this person’s position on Opening Day,” Krall stated. Those comments are particularly eye-opening given the presence of stalwart first baseman Joey Votto still being on the roster, though the 39-year-old will be entering the final season of his 10-year contract in 2023. Mike Moustakas, the only other guaranteed contract on the books, is also entering the final season of his four-year deal but has played himself out of an everyday role over the past two seasons, hitting .212/.289/.356 in 491 plate appearances. There’s also 2021 NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India to consider; he’s not signed to a long-term contract and is in search of a rebound at the plate after taking a step back in ’22, but one would still think he’s in line for regular playing time.

Setting aside any implications for players currently on the roster, Krall’s comments seem to further suggest what was already largely assumed — that the Reds aren’t likely to fill any of their numerous holes with a free agent of note or swing any sort of trade for established Major League talent. That fact is further reinforced by Nightengale reporting within the piece that the payroll, which has decreased in each of the past two seasons, is likely to be pared even further back in 2023.

The Reds spent $106MM on the roster in 2022, but with several in-season trades and now Minor, Solano and Strickland coming off the books, that figure will be easy to reduce. Votto and Moustakas, owed a combined $43MM, are the only guaranteed contracts remaining for the Reds next year. They’ll have a slate of players eligible for arbitration, but none who can be expected to command salaries of real note. Buck Farmer, Luis Cessa, Kyle Farmer, Lucas Sims, Jeff Hoffman, Nick Senzel, Tejay Antone, Justin Dunn, Aramis Garcia, Derek Law and Aristides Aquino will all be eligible for arbitration this winter, but several of those names are non-tender candidates — and the ones who’ll clearly be tendered (e.g. Antone) won’t have particularly high salaries.

Just how low the payroll will be stripped down remains unclear. The very presence of Votto and Moustakas means that even if the roster were rounded out solely with pre-arbitration players — which obviously won’t happen — the Reds would spend at least $60MM. They’ll very likely run out a heftier budget than that, but Krall’s end-of-season comments and the recent trajectory of the Cincinnati payroll don’t give fans much hope that reinforcements are on the way.

It’s been a brutal several years for Reds fans, who were subjected to six straight losing seasons from 2014-19. The trades made along the way, intended to rebuild the farm system, generally didn’t bear as much fruit as hoped, but the Reds still cultivated a strong rotation, spent on key free agents like Nick Castellanos, and made the playoffs in the shortened 2020 season. That looked to have set the stage for a return to prominence in the NL Central, but Reds ownership has instead been among the most aggressive groups in baseball at shedding payroll in the wake of the shortened 2020 season and the absence of gate revenue.

The latest rebuild looks to be off to a better start — the return from the Castillo trade, in particular, is viewed to be a strong one — but it’ll likely be a couple more years before the Reds’ system yields a viable Major League core. By that point, they’ll be approaching a decade of losing baseball, with the only respite being the two-month sprint in the midst of the pandemic — when fans weren’t even able to enjoy the success in person.

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Cincinnati Reds

Rangers Will Meet With Martin Perez Next Week

By | at October 7, 2022 2:43pm CDT

The Rangers are planning to meet with Martin Perez and his representatives at Octagon next week, general manager Chris Young said at today’s end-of-season press conference (Twitter link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). Perez, a free agent, has expressed interest in re-signing with Texas at multiple points this summer, and Young went on record to express interest in retaining the 31-year-old southpaw.

Originally signed by the Rangers as an amateur out of Venezuela, Perez one ranked among the sport’s very best pitching prospects. He finished sixth in American League Rookie of the Year voting back in 2013 and looked very much like a pitcher on the rise; Perez inked a four-year, $12.5MM contract extension that included three club options after that rookie season.

Perez’s upward trajectory quickly hit a snag in 2014, however, as elbow discomfort sidelined him for much of the season and ultimately culminated in Tommy John surgery. He returned late in 2015, but Perez saw his command and strikeout rates both continue to trend in the wrong direction. He settled in as a back-of-the-rotation starter, bouncing from Texas to Minnesota to Boston before returning to the Rangers on a one-year, $4MM deal in free agency this past winter.

The Perez reunion was met with a healthy bit of skepticism, but he’s quieted naysayers with far and away the best showing of his career. In 32 starts and 196 2/3 innings, Perez worked to a 2.89 ERA, a career-best 20.6% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate that was his third-best mark since returning from Tommy John surgery. Perez’s 51.4% grounder rate was his best mark since 2016.

There hasn’t been a radical overhaul of Perez’s pitch arsenal — no new, bat-missing slider that’s turned him into a dominant arm — but he’s succeeded with some more subtle changes. This year’s 27.7% usage rate on his changeup is the highest of his career, and Perez has increasingly favored his sinker, relegating his four-seamer and curveball to little more than occasional change-of-pace offerings. It’s been primarily sinker, cutter and changeup for Perez in 2022, and it’s hard to argue with the results.

For all the money the Rangers spent last year — more than a half-billion dollars in free agent contracts — the starting rotation remains in a state of flux. Last year’s main pickup for the starting staff, Jon Gray, posted strong results in his first season away from Colorado’s Coors Field, pitching to a 3.96 ERA in 127 1/3 innings but also missing time with minor knee and oblique issues. Right-handers Dane Dunning and Glenn Otto made 29 and 27 starts, respectively, finishing with ERAs in the mid-4.00s (though Otto’s strikeout and walk rates paint a more bearish picture). Texas has about $85MM on next year’s payroll, before considering a $6MM club option on Jose Leclerc and a small arbitration class headlined by Mitch Garver and Taylor Hearn.

Beyond that trio of Gray, Dunning and Otto, there’s no real certainty. Starting pitching figures to be a primary focus for the Rangers this winter, and while Perez may not be expected to repeat his 2022 excellence, he’d be a strong stabilizing presence and a nice early complement as the new-look Texas front office seeks a higher-profile addition for the top of the rotation. Perez has certainly earned himself a multi-year deal with that 2022 showing, and the question will now become one of whether the two parties can find a common ground.

Publicly stated mutual interest from the two parties is a good start but hardly solidifies that a deal will come together. If Perez does reach the open market, he ought to draw a fair bit of interest. He continued to command Major League contracts with decent guarantees even on the heels of lackluster performances, after all, signaling that teams throughout the league have long believed there’s another gear for him to reach. Now that he’s seemingly found that next level, that interest will only intensify.

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Blue Jays Set Wild Card Roster

By | at October 7, 2022 1:04pm CDT

Fresh off a 91-win 2021 season that still left them watching the playoffs from home with a fourth-place finish, the 2022 Blue Jays won 92 games and this time landed the top Wild Card spot in the American League. As such, they’ll host a best-of-three set against a Mariners team making its first playoff appearance in two decades. Here’s their roster…

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Not many playoff clubs see a managerial change midseason, but the Jays are riding into postseason play with an interim manager (former bench coach John Schneider), thanks largely to a powerhouse lineup that slugged 200 home runs (seventh in MLB) and led the American League batting average (.264), on-base percentage (.329), slugging percentage (.431) and wRC+ (117).

The Jays won’t have outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. available to them this round, as he’s dealing with a hamstring injury that’ll keep him sidelined. That’ll push Tapia into today’s starting lineup as the left fielder — a notable step down in production at the plate. Gurriel hit .291/.343/.400 this season, whereas Tapia’s first year with the Jays resulted in a .265/.292/.380 slash.

Toronto will carry all three of its well-regarded catchers on the roster, giving them the luxury of plugging two of Jansen (.260/.339/.516), Kirk (.285/.372/.415) and Moreno (.319/.356/.377) in the lineup in each game without fear of losing the DH in the event of an injury behind the plate.

The Blue Jays have not yet announced the second and third starters of the series, but it’ll be Manoah going in Game 1. The former first-round pick broke out as a legitimate Cy Young contender in 2022, hurling 196 2/3 inning of 2.24 ERA ball with a 22.9% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate.

Gausman, signed to a five-year deal over the winter, thrived in his first season with the Jays and is a natural candidate to take the bump in Game 2, but there’s perhaps some consideration to saving him for either an elimination game this series or, in the event of a sweep, for a Game 1 appearance in the ALDS. Both Berrios and Kikuchi have been disappointments for the Jays in 2022, and although Berrios is the most established option for a third start this series, it’s possible that Stripling (2.92 ERA in 123 1/3 innings as a starter) will ultimately be the one to take the hill.

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Mariners Set Wild Card Roster

By | at October 7, 2022 12:36pm CDT

The drought is over. For the first time since 2001, the Mariners are in the playoffs — the culmination of a frenetic rebuild from president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s front office. The new-look Mariners, bolstered by an aggressive offseason and trade deadline as well as the AL Rookie of the Year frontrunner, won 90 games and closed out their season with a 69-44 flourish, beginning on June 1. Here’s how their roster breaks down…

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Absent from the postseason roster are Marco Gonzales, who started the final game of the season, and Chris Flexen, who was pushed to the bullpen late in the season due to the strength of the Mariners’ staff. Both could factor into future rounds, if Seattle advances. They’re on the taxi squad alongside lefty Brennan Bernardino and outfielder Cade Marlowe, who’s yet to make his MLB debut but would be first in line should the M’s incur an injury in the outfield.

Jesse Winker, who suffered a neck injury late in the season and was placed on the injured list. That’ll ensure that both Kelenic and Trammell, a pair of former top prospects who’ve crushed Triple-A pitching but have yet to find their footing in the Majors. Even if Kelenic and Trammell have yet to contribute much, the Mariners have received across-the-board contributions have from their draft picks and international signings — Gilbert, Kirby, Rodriguez, Raleigh — and a dizzying array of other trades, some of which have flown relatively under the radar.

France and Munoz, both acquired from the Padres alongside Trammell in a trade that sent Austin Nola to San Diego, have emerged as critical contributors. Crawford came to Seattle from Philadelphia by way of the Jean Segura swap. Swanson was a secondary piece in the James Paxton trade with the Yankees but has emerged as a wipeout reliever. Diego Castillo came over from the Rays last summer, while Brash was acquired from the Padres in exchange for a pitcher, Taylor Williams, who threw just 6 1/3 innings for them. The recently extended Luis Castillo, landed in one of the biggest deals of the deadline season this year, strengthened a rotation headed by 2021 Cy Young winner Robbie Ray, whom the Mariners signed last offseason. That pair will join Gilbert and Kirby in the rotation for years to come in what looks like an increasingly bright future for the Mariners.

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Cardinals Announce Wild Card Roster

By | at October 7, 2022 11:34am CDT

The end of an era is drawing near in St. Louis, and as the Cardinals hope to send at least two franchise icons off on the highest note possible, they’ve formally set their roster for their best-of-three Wild Card series against the Phillies. Here’s how the roster will look as Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols suit up for the final postseason run of their illustrious careers…

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

The Cardinals are without outfielder Tyler O’Neill, who’s been out since mid-September owing to a hamstring strain. He’s been rehabbing and progressing toward a return, and Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that O’Neill will actually plan in this year’s Arizona Fall League to continue rehabbing with an eye toward a hopeful return during the NLDS — assuming the Cardinals advance beyond the first round of play.

All eyes this series will be on Pujols, Molina and Wainwright — a trio of St. Louis icons who’ll hope to add one final World Series ring to their likely Hall of Fame resumes. Molina and Pujols have already announced their intention to retire at season’s end. Wainwright could well give it one more go but has kept his own plans close to the vest.

Regardless, it’s been a remarkable scene for Cardinals fans throughout the season, watching three beloved players reprise their halcyon days from more than a decade ago as they reunited to capture the NL Central crown. Along the way, Pujols rode a late hot streak for the ages into the rarefied air of the 700 home run club, while Molina and Wainwright established a new Major League record for most starts made by a battery. All the while, the Cards received MVP-level play from their infield corners and saw rookies like Nootbaar and Donovan provide a glimpse of what’s to come in the years ahead.

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