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Cardinals Outright Taylor Motter

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Cardinals utilityman Taylor Motter has been sent outright to Triple-A Memphis, according to the transaction tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment on Saturday.

Motter has had a rather eventful time in the St. Louis organization since signing a minor league contract last November. He broke camp out of Spring Training, securing a season-opening bench spot with Paul DeJong on the injured list. When DeJong was reinstated three weeks into the year, Motter was DFA. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Memphis, but the Cards apparently didn’t want to risk losing him to minor league free agency. St. Louis re-signed him to a major league deal within hours of the outright, optioning top prospect Jordan Walker to create roster space.

That second stint on the MLB roster proved briefer than the first. Motter lost his spot again within two weeks as the Cards added a third catcher to push Willson Contreras to designated hitter over the weekend. The right-handed hitting Motter has played in just eight games for St. Louis overall. He’s managed a .200/.273/.300 line in 22 trips to the plate. Motter has played for seven big league clubs in parts of six seasons. The 33-year-old sports a .191/.263/.309 slash in 169 MLB contests.

As was the case last time around, Motter will now decide whether to report to Memphis. He’s been outrighted multiple times in his career and thus has the ability to test the open market each time he clears waivers. A career .262/.352/.482 hitter in Triple-A, Motter would certainly be able to find minor league interest elsewhere were he to look to free agency.

Cardinals To Shift Willson Contreras Off Catcher

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TODAY: St. Louis president of baseball operations John Mozeliak specified that Contreras will be a designated hitter rather than an outfielder “unless there’s some sort of emergency,” Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic report. Mozeliak also shed some more light on the decision to make the position change, saying that “obviously the Cardinals were used to [Molina] behind the plate for close to two decades. The nuances of that position, maybe very subtle, are what a lot of our pitchers were used to. What we were seeing was a lack of confidence.

“Normally, you would say, why didn’t you address this in Spring Training? But in Spring Training, it’s so different in terms of what people are trying to work on. Pitchers are going a couple of innings. It doesn’t really count….We just decided to do it head on, put it out there. Do we think we’ve seen Willson catch his last game? No. But this is going to take a little time to get him to where we feel he understands the expectations of what this role is for us.”

Like manager Oliver Marmol said yesterday, Mozeliak reiterated that Contreras wasn’t being singled out as a cause of the team’s struggles. “What I don’t want to have happen is a finger-point, this is all Willson’s fault. It’s not. There are many parts of our team right now that are not performing to what we expected,” Mozeliak said.

MAY 6: On the face of it, the Cardinals’ decision to call up minor league catcher Tres Barrera didn’t seem like the sort of deal to make headlines around baseball, but the ramifications of it are significant. It’s not so much the call up of Barrera, but the fact his arrival means St Louis will shift Willson Contreras off catcher for the “next couple of weeks”, as Katie Woo of The Athletic reports, with Andrew Knizner to take over as the primary backstop.

It’s a huge move to shift your star off-season recruit off his primary position just a month into his first season, but the Cards clearly feel this is the best move to help them turn around their 10-23 start to the season. Contreras, signed to a five-year, $87.5MM deal in the winter, will now serve as a DH/outfielder for the team, further muddying an already crowded outfield picture in St Louis.

At the plate, Contreras has been his usual self, slashing .280/.361/.421 with a pair of home runs, good for a wRC+ of 119. That’s a slight drop on his numbers from last year but pretty much in line with his career numbers. His offensive work was never likely to be the source of any concern though, with the focus here surely on his work behind the plate.

Catchers are a challenging position to assess statistically, but there’s generally been some question marks over Contreras’ work behind the plate. Concerns over his ability to handle a pitching staff and call a game surfaced around the trade deadline last year when he was with the Cubs, and Chicago wound up holding him onto him until he hit free agency at the end of the season. That’s obviously a tricky concern to really quantify, but it’s certainly worth considering in the wake of this news.

Fangraphs gives him a -1 mark on their framing metric, while Statcast has him about middle of the pack in that regard. As far as pop time goes Contreras ranks tenth out of MLB catchers, and has cut down five of a potential 17 stolen bases so far this season. While he doesn’t rank as elite in either regard, it’s not awful either and certainly suggests that there’s more than just catching statistics that are driving this move. While there will surely be some explanation of this move from the Cardinals front office, there’s a good chance their pitching staff’s start to the season played a part here.

St Louis ranks 24th in the majors in starting pitcher ERA, a ranking that could be a lot lower were it not for the excellent start made by Jordan Montgomery. Behind the left-hander, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Jack Flaherty are all sporting ERAs well north of 5. While the reporting suggests this move is only for the next couple of weeks, it’ll be interesting to see if Contreras can force his way back into handling catching duties or whether this the long term move.

For now though, it creates even more uncertainty in the Cardinals outfield picture. In today’s game, the team ran out Lars Nootbar, Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson in the outfield, with Contreras handling DH, and that seems like the most common group we’ll see over the next few weeks. Yet the team will welcome back Tyler O’Neill at some stage, and still has top outfield prospect Jordan Walker at Triple-A, while Contreras is expected to feature in the outfield mix as well.

It’s possible Contreras winds up working his way back into the catching picture at some point, but the Cardinals were often speculated as a team that could look to trade an outfielder before this move today, and with another key bat now in that mix a trade certainly seems like a possibility at some point over the summer.

Cardinals Activate Adam Wainwright, Select Tres Barrera, DFA Taylor Motter

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The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s clash with the Tigers, activating veteran Adam Wainwright from the 15-day IL and selecting the contract of catcher Tres Barrera. Guillermo Zuniga was optioned to Triple-A while infielder Taylor Motter was designated for assignment. Wainwright will start today’s match.

The return of Wainwright is a big boost to a Cardinals rotation that – outside of Jordan Montgomery – has struggled mightily to start the season. Cardinals starters rank 24th in the majors with a 5.39 ERA, with Montgomery’s 3.29 mark holding things together while Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Jack Flaherty have all disappointed.

The 41-year-old Wainwright will make his first start of what will be his final big league season. Despite his age, Wainwright has been a reliable starter for the Cardinals in recent years, making 64 starts in the past two seasons and working to a 3.37 ERA. His return should help as the Cardinals try to stabilize their rotation, and get back into the race for the NL Central after a disappointing 10-23 start.

The selection of Barrera is also a noteworthy one, as it sees the Cardinals shift major off-season recruit Willson Contreras off catching duties. St Louis will now primarily work with Andrew Knizner at backstop with Barrera backing him up, while Contreras will almost exclusively see time at DH and in the outfield, manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St Louis Post-Dispatch).

The presence of Contreras in the outfield and DH will further crowd the Cardinals’ picture there, with Tyler O’Neill, Lars Nootbar, Dylan Carlson and the recently optioned Jordan Walker all factors in play. Contreras has hit at usual above average clip, posting a .280/.361/.421 line with a pair of home runs but his framing numbers are below average and with the Cards’ rotation struggling it appears they’ve moved to shake things up a bit.

Barrera joined the Cardinals on a minor league deal this winter after spending the entirety of his career in the Nationals organization. He has exactly one year of service time over three big league seasons, putting together a .231/.317/.315 line with two home runs in that time. He’ll now presumably serve as Knizner’s backup with the big league club.

Motter also joined the Cardinals this year to a work as a utility option off the bench. He’d put together a .200/.273/.300 line in just 22 plate appearances, striking out in more than 36% of his plate appearances. In his brief stint with the Cardinals he logged time at second and third, but he’s also seen time at short and in the outfield for other teams throughout his career. While the offensive numbers don’t inspire much confidence, it’s possible another team sees value in Motter’s ability to bounce round the diamond and places a claim on the 33-year-old.

Zuniga, 24, made his big league debut for the Cards this season, pitching just a solitary inning out of the bullpen, striking out a couple of batters and keeping things scoreless. He’ll head back to Triple-A and continue to provide the team with relief pitching depth there, where he has a 5.40 ERA in 8 1/3 innings this season.

Cardinals Place Tyler O’Neill On IL, Select James Naile

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The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves today, selecting right-hander James Naile and recalling first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez from Triple-A Memphis. In corresponding moves, outfielder Tyler O’Neill was placed on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain while right-hander Jake Woodford was placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. To open a spot on the 40-man for Naile, righty Wilking Rodríguez was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

O’Neill, 28 in June, has a tremendous ceiling but has been held back by injuries in recent years. In 2021, he launched 34 home runs and hit .286/.352/.560 overall for a 144 wRC+. He also stole 15 bases and got good grades for his glovework, leading to a tally of 5.6 wins above replacement from FanGraphs. But last year, he made multiple trips to the IL and only got into 96 games, playing with diminished production when on the field. This year, he’s hitting just .228/.283/.337 while striking out in 34.3% of his trips to the plate.

The Cardinals have been dealing with a crowded outfield mix this year, as young players like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker made the club out of camp, joining O’Neill, Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar, though the latter missed some time on the injured list. It was hard enough to divvy up the playing time that the Cards optioned Walker to the minors to get more regular at-bats in the minors. Now that O’Neill isn’t in the mix, that should make things simpler, though Yepez has been recalled instead of Walker today.

As for Naile, 30, this will be his second stint on the roster, having been selected in June of last year. He spent the rest of the year getting frequently optioned and recalled, posting an ERA of 5.00 in the majors over nine scattered appearances. He was designated for assignment in February but cleared waivers and stayed in the organization. He has an ERA of 2.50 through 18 Triple-A innings so far this year. The club used a lot of their lower leverage pitchers yesterday when starter Jack Flaherty lasted only 2 1/3 innings, so bringing up Naile will give the club a fresh arm to call upon. He still has a couple of options and can be sent back down to the minors when needed.

Rodríguez, 33, was selected from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft but had a shoulder injury pop up in the spring. He underwent surgery earlier this week and is expected to miss the next four to six months, making this move an expected formality.

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: White Sox Struggles, Red Sox Options, Managers On The Hot Seat

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Episode 5 of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Simon Hampton is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:

  • The state of the White Sox, and why they find themselves in a deep hole in the AL Central after one month of the season (3:20)
  • If they opt to sell at the deadline, who could they look to move and who might be off limits? (8:10)
  • Whether the Cardinals could look to trade Tommy Edman as Masyn Winn nears the big leagues (18:35)
  • Options for the Red Sox to improve their roster over the next few months (21:54)
  • Plus, are there any managers on the hot seat at this early stage of the season? (25:41)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Cardinals’ Rule 5 Pick Wilking Rodriguez Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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Cardinals righty Wilking Rodriguez, whom they selected from the Yankees in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft, underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery today and will miss the next four to six months, manager Oli Marmol announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat).

The surgery likely ends Rodriguez’s season. He’ll spend the entire season on the Cardinals’ big league injured list, which won’t wipe away his Rule 5 status. The Cards will have the right to keep Rodriguez if they’re comfortable carrying him on the 40-man roster all offseason and putting him on the Opening Day roster in 2024. He’d still need 90 days on the active roster next season before he’d shed his Rule 5 designation and be eligible to be optioned to the minors.

Rodriguez, 33, is a rather remarkable story. Eight years have elapsed since his last season of affiliated ball, and it’s been nine years since his lone MLB stint with the Royals. He’s been a regular in the Venezuelan Winter League and, more recently, in the Mexican League, where he’s been particularly impressive of late. From 2021-22, Rodriguez tossed 73 innings of 2.71 ERA ball, including a 2.01 ERA and 43.2% strikeout rate in 44 2/3 frames last year.

The Yankees saw that production and signed Rodriguez to a minor league deal back in August. However, Rodriguez had so much minor league service from with the Rays, Reds, Royals and Yanks themselves from 2007-15, that he was eligible for selection when the Rule 5 Draft rolled around. The Cardinals selected him, hoping to plug Rodriguez’s power arm into the bullpen. Things won’t play out that way, and only time will tell whether the Cardinals want to carry the experiment over into the 2024 campaign. For now, Rodriguez will accrue MLB service time and pay so long as he’s on the Cardinals’ Major League disabled list.

Cardinals Recall Guillermo Zuniga, Option Zack Thompson

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The Cardinals recalled reliever Guillermo Zuñiga before tonight’s matchup with the Angels. In a corresponding move, left-hander Zack Thompson was optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Thompson will stretch out as a starting pitcher in the minors, tweets Jeff Jones of the Belleville News Democrat.

Zuñiga, 24, is now in position to make his major league debut. The Colombian-born hurler signed with the Dodgers over the 2017-18 offseason. He spent five years in the Los Angeles organization, topping out at Double-A. When the Dodgers elected not to add him to the 40-man roster last winter, he qualified for minor league free agency. Zuñiga landed a 40-man spot from the Cardinals in November.

Last offseason, Baseball America named the 6’5″ hurler the #30 prospect in the St. Louis farm system. The outlet credits him with an upper-90s heater that touches triple digits and a plus breaking ball but raises questions about his control. Zuñiga has thrown strikes in a small sample of work with Memphis this year, only walking two of 35 batters faced. He’s punched out nine and allowed five runs in 8 2/3 innings. He’ll add a power arm to the MLB mix for skipper Oli Marmol and can bounce on and off the active roster for the extended future, as he’s only in the first of three minor league option seasons.

Thompson, the Cardinals’ first round pick in 2019, has worked exclusively in relief this year. The hard-throwing southpaw has tossed 11 2/3 innings over 11 outings. The Kentucky product has fanned 18 but walked nine and surrendered seven runs. Thompson had a stronger go last year as a rookie, working to a 2.08 ERA with a huge 53.7% ground-ball percentage in 34 2/3 frames over 22 outings (all but one in relief).

While he’s only made one start at the major league level, Thompson has functioned primarily as a starter in the minors. The Cards apparently don’t want to foreclose that option entirely. It’d appear primarily a move with an eye towards 2024. St. Louis has a starting staff of Jordan Montgomery, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright for this season. Wainwright hasn’t pitched in the majors this season but will be reinstated from the injured list for his debut on Saturday, according to Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Jake Woodford is on hand behind that group.

Montgomery and Flaherty are headed for free agency at the end of the season. Wainwright has already announced plans to retire. That leaves Mikolas and Matz as the only locks for the 2024 staff. The Cardinals will surely have to address the rotation — either at this summer’s deadline or next offseason — but they’d get a boost if an internal option like Matthew Liberatore or Thompson could earn a spot. The 25-year-old Thompson will head back to Memphis and build his innings count as he looks to do just that.

Mike Shannon Passes Away

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Former Cardinals third baseman, outfielder, and broadcaster Mike Shannon passed away last night at the age of 83, per a team announcement.

“The St. Louis Cardinals were saddened to learn this morning of the passing of Cardinals Hall of Famer and beloved St. Louisan Mike Shannon,” Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt Jr. said in a statement. “Mike’s unique connection to Cardinals fans and his teammates was reflected in his unbridled passion for the game, the Cardinals, and the St. Louis community.”

Shannon played for the Cardinals for nine seasons, from 1962 until 1970, when his playing career ended after he contracted nephritis. He won the World Series twice with the club, in both 1964 and 1967. In 1967, Shannon finished 7th in NL MVP voting, joining Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and winner Bob Gibson among Cardinals who finished in the top 10 that season. During his career, Shannon hit both the final home run in the original Busch Stadium and the first home run by the Cardinals in the second Busch Stadium. Overall, Shannon slashed .255/.311/.387 for his career, good for a roughly league average 97 wRC+.

Shortly after his retirement, Shannon joined the club’s broadcast booth in 1972. He would go on to spend 50 years as the voice of the Cardinals on the radio until his retirement following the 2021 season. Shannon was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014.

We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Shannon’s family, friends, and the many fans mourning him today.

The Ongoing Cardinals Outfield Battle

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Even though the Cardinals traded away Harrison Bader last summer, they are still dealing with a crowded outfield mix. That’s thanks to the emergence of young players like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker. Those two joined Lars Nootbaar, Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson in the battle for playing time. That’s five guys for three spots, since infielder Nolan Gorman has been taking the designated hitter slot on most days, with Willson Contreras getting a couple of nods there as well when not catching.

The crowding evidently got to be a bit too much, as Walker was surprisingly optioned down to the minors this week. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak recently addressed the move, as relayed by John Denton of MLB.com (Twitter links). Mozeliak said the move was about getting some more consistency from this group, hoping that subtracting one member would make it easier for everyone to get into a good rhythm.

The results of this jockeying for playing time will have consequences for the club in the short term, as they are off to a rough 10-16 start and will need to gain ground in the coming months. There will also be long-term ramifications, since all of those players are still under club control next year. If the Cards find themselves outside the playoff picture in July, they could consider moving someone and still have plenty of options to fill the outfield. And , as we saw last year with the Bader deal, they could make a trade even when they are in contention. Those decisions will surely be based on how the individuals perform in the next few months, so let’s take a look at where things stand now.

Tyler O’Neill

O’Neill is the oldest and most experienced of the bunch, turning 28 in June and having debuted in 2018. He has between four and five years of service time, meaning he can be controlled via arbitration for one more year before reaching free agency after the 2024 season.

He has shown the ability to be an excellent all-around player, especially in 2021. O’Neill hit 34 home runs that year and slashed .286/.352/.560 overall for a wRC+ of 144. He also stole 15 bases and was graded well for his glovework in left field, leading to a tally of 5.6 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs. That currently stands out as a career year for O’Neill, who was slowed by injuries last year. He only got into 96 games and had a diminished .228/.308/.392 batting line (101 wRC+). This year, he’s hitting just .256/.318/.385 for a wRC+ of 98.

O’Neill and manager Oli Marmol got in a public spat earlier in the year when the latter accused the former of improper hustle and spoke to the media about it. O’Neill disagreed with the sentiment that he wasn’t giving his all and also didn’t seem to care for the issue being aired so openly. He was benched for one game but has been getting regular playing time since, seeming to suggest there’s no lingering ill will from the dust-up. He got some time in center field earlier in the year but has been back in left for the past couple of weeks.

Some observers have pointed to the fact that Bader was also criticized by Marmol for a lack of hustle last year, just about six weeks before he was flipped to the Yankees, therefore suggesting the writing is on the wall for O’Neill. That’s pure speculation, but O’Neill is the most logical trade candidate since he’s the oldest and closest to free agency. However, dealing him would be selling low unless he can regain some of that excellent form he showed a couple of years ago.

Lars Nootbaar

Nootbaar is in his third major league season but was frequently optioned in the first couple, meaning he’s played just 178 games thus far. He initially hovered around league average at the plate but has taken steps forward over the past year or so, seeming to thrive when he got more regular playing time. Bader went on the IL June 27 of last year with plantar fasciitis, moving Carlson over to center and opening right field for Nootbaar. Bader was then traded before even recovering from that ailment. Since that time, Nootbaar has walked almost as much as he’s been punched out, getting a free pass 17.2% of the time compared to an 18.4% strikeout rate. That’s led to a .244/.373/.478 batting line and a 141 wRC+. His strong results at the plate are backed up by Statcast, who ranked him in the 90th percentile last year in terms of average exit velocity, 80th in hard hit rate and 85th in barrel rate.

That strong work at the plate is accompanied by excellent glovework as well. Nootbaar has played all three outfield positions and has tallied two Outs Above Average, six Defensive Runs Saved and a 6.7 grade from Ultimate Zone Rating. In the comments from Mozeliak linked above, he said Nootbaar will be the regular center fielder going forward.

Nootbaar seems like a solid long-term piece for the Cardinals given his well-rounded contributions. He’s currently 25 years old and has between one and two years of service time. He won’t reach arbitration until after 2024 and isn’t slated for free agency until after 2027. Over the winter, both the Athletics (in Sean Murphy discussions) and Marlins (in Pablo Lopez talks) brought up Nootbaar as a target of interest, but the Cardinals rebuffed those overtures.

Alec Burleson

Unlike O’Neill and Nootbaar, Burleson has fewer dimensions to his game. His defense is generally considered subpar, even when limited to the corners, and Statcast pegs him in the 24th percentile in terms of sprint speed. He’s seen a bit of time at first base, dating back to last season.

The appeal of Burleson is his bat, which has the potential to hit for both contact and power. Outside of a brief debut in High-A in 2021, he’s generally been difficult to strike out both in the majors and the minors. He’s had only 134 major league plate appearances so far but has been punched out at just a 14.2% rate, well below this year’s 23% league average. He’s hit three home runs so far and currently has a line of .236/.295/.444. That’s just slightly above average, translating to a 104 wRC+, but that’s not bad for a player still getting his feet wet in the majors. He hit 20 home runs in 109 Triple-A games last year and slashed .331/.372/.532 (137 wRC+).

Burleson is just 24 years old and has less than a year of service, meaning he won’t qualify for arbitration until after 2025 and isn’t slated for free agency until 2028. He could be a long-term option in the corners for St. Louis, but he isn’t an exact match for their typical M.O. of placing an emphasis on defense.

Dylan Carlson

Carlson was considered one of the top prospects in baseball not too long ago, with Baseball America having him in the top 10 league-wide in 2020 and 2021. He got regular playing time over the past two years and proved himself to be a serviceable player with average-ish hitting and defense. Carlson hit .253/.331/.412 for a wRC+ of 107 over 2021 and 2022, walking and striking out at roughly league average rates. All three of DRS, OAA and UZR considered his glovework average or slightly above.

He’s been the one most squeezed by the logjam so far, only starting 10 of the club’s 26 games. The part-time role hasn’t suited him, as he’s hitting just .250/.308/.333 on the season for a wRC+ of 83. Perhaps he is the player with the most to gain from Walker’s demotion, as he will hopefully get some more trips to the plate and get into a better groove. He’s 24 years old but has between two and three years of service time already. He’s on pace to qualify for arbitration this winter and reach free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.

Jordan Walker

Walker parlayed a hot spring into an Opening Day roster spot despite being just 20 years old, turning 21 in May. He stayed hot to start the season, getting a hit in his first 12 games while slashing .319/.360/.489. He cooled off a bit from there, hitting just .192/.250/.231 since then. That latter line is a tiny sample of eight games, but the club still felt the best decision for everyone involved was for him to get regular at-bats in the minors and to spread his playing time around to the others. Between both of those stretches, he only walked in 3.8% of his trips to the plate.

Walker is still one of the best prospects in the game and will no doubt be back at some point. An injury to one of the other outfielders would quickly make space for him. He was on track to earn a full year of service this year but could wind up shy of that, depending how long he’s down on the farm.

Juan Yepez

Yepez has mashed in the minors over the past few years, hitting .252/.343/.487 in Double-A and .281/.362/.575 in Triple-A. He’s seemingly capable of carrying that over to the big leagues as well, having hit .257/.297/.453 for a wRC+ of 111 in 286 plate appearances. The problem is that he’s not considered a strong runner or defender. He could be a useful bat-first player in a corner spot, but the Cards have Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado at first and third, in addition to the crowded outfield mix. Yepez is 25 years old and still has a couple of option years, meaning the Cards can keep him as a depth piece for quite a while if they so choose.

Moises Gomez

Gomez isn’t considered a great runner or defender, nor does he have strong bat-to-ball skills. His standout tool is his power. Gomez hit 39 home runs last year in 120 games between Double-A and Triple-A, but also struck out in 34.7% of his plate appearances. He was added to the 40-man roster at season’s end to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency but is off to a slow start this year. Through 20 Triple-A games, he’s cut his strikeout rate to 24.7% but has gone deep just once and is walking just 4.7% of the time. His .234/.282/.351 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 58.

______________________________

There’s plenty of talent amid these options and it seems entirely possible that a trade will be on the table this summer, whether the Cardinals climb back into contention or not. They could easily move one of these players for some pitching, just like they did with Bader last year, and still have good options for filling out the lineup card every night. The club’s front office has just over three months to decide how to play it.

Dick Groat Passes Away

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Former National League MVP and eight-time All-Star Dick Groat has passed away at the age of 92, the Pirates announced this morning.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a beloved member of the Pirates family and Pittsburgh community,” Pirates owner Bob Nutting said in a statement announcing the news. “The National League MVP and World Series Champion in 1960, Dick remained a very active and cherished member of our Alumni Association. We were honored to have just recently informed Dick and his family that he had been selected to the Pirates Hall of Fame. He was a great player and an even better person. Our thoughts go out to his three daughters, eleven grandchildren and the entire Groat family. His was a life well lived. He will be missed.”

A Pittsburgh-area native and one of the best two-sport athletes ever, Groat not only played in MLB but also had a brief stint in the NBA on the heels of a historic basketball career at Duke University, where his number is retired. Groat was the third overall pick in the 1952 NBA draft but wound up playing in just one season after enlisting in the Army and focusing on his baseball career following his discharge.

Groat jumped right from his career at Duke into Major League Baseball, bypassing the minor leagues entirely. He batted .284/.319/.313 and finished third in 1952 NL Rookie of the Year voting before the previously mentioned two years of military service. Upon returning in 1955, he posted similar numbers for his next two seasons and took a step forward in 1957, the first of four seasons in which Groat would receive MVP votes.

From 1957-64, Groat batted a combined .299/.340/.393, regularly making the All-Star team along the way and four times garnering some level of MVP consideration. That includes a 1960 season in which he won a batting title and batted .325/.371/.394 on his way to being named the National League MVP. He also finished as the MVP runner-up to Sandy Koufax in 1963 — Groat’s first season with the Cardinals after being sent to St. Louis in a trade that brought pitcher Don Cardwell and infielder Julio Gotay back to Pittsburgh.

In all, Groat played in parts of 14 Major League seasons: nine with the Pirates, three with the Cardinals, two with the Phillies and one partial season with the Giants. He retired as a lifetime .286/.330/.366 batter with 2138 hits, 39 home runs, 352 doubles, 67 triples, 829 runs scored and 707 runs batted in. He won World Series rings with the Pirates in 1960 and with the Cardinals in 1964, helping both clubs topple the Yankees in the Fall Classic.

Following his playing days, Groat spent 40 years as a broadcaster for the University of Pittsburgh’s men’s basketball team, further endearing himself to hometown fans and further establishing his legacy in his native city’s sporting lore.

Groat will be remembered as one of the greatest two-sport talents we’ve ever seen, a World Series champion in both Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and a beloved broadcaster in his hometown. We at MLBTR extend our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and the countless fans he accumulated over the course of a remarkable career.

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