Edmundo Sosa

NL East Notes: Wright, Meneses, Rainey, Sosa

By Simon Hampton | February 20, 2023 at 3:00pm CDT

Even if Kyle Wright is slightly behind in his throwing schedule, Atlanta is hoping he won’t have to start the regular season on the injured list, according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The right-hander produced comfortably his best season to date last year, breaking out after owning a combined 6.56 ERA. over the previous four seasons to go 21-5 with a 3.19 ERA over 180 1/3 innings.

The 27-year-old’s off-season prep was halted for three weeks in January following a cortisone injection in his right shoulder. That’s put him behind schedule as spring training begins, and Wright’s unlikely to make any starts for Atlanta over the first few weeks of Grapefruit League action in Florida. As Bowman reports, the hope is he’ll be able to increase his pitch count during the back half of spring training to a point where he can throw around 75 pitches in his regular season debut. That would probably mean he’d miss Atlanta’s opening series in Washington, instead targeting the trip to St Louis as a possible season debut.

Here’s some more notes from around the National League East:

The Nationals intend to use 2022 breakout star Joey Meneses in a utility role this season. Manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post) that Meneses would play “a lot of a little bit of everywhere.” That’ll mean he sees time at first base, left field and DH on the rebuilding Nats. As a 30-year-old rookie, Meneses slashed .324/.367/.563 with 13 home runs across 240 plate appearances last season, a small bright spot in a disappointing campaign for Washington. He was certainly helped by a .371 BABIP, but nonetheless it was an impressive debut stint in the big leagues for a player who toiled away for 11 years for reaching the bigs.
Sticking with the Nats for now, and reliever Tanner Rainey is targeting a return at the 12-month mark since his Tommy John surgery. As Jessica Camerato of MLB.com reports, Rainey is in the third week of his throwing program, and a return a year after surgery would have him slated to be back on the mound in the first week of August. Of course, there’s a lot that can happen between now and then, and with the Nats in the midst of a rebuild they’d certainly be unlikely to rush him back, but it’s an encouraging sign for the 30-year-old, who worked to a 3.30 ERA over 30 innings last season before going down.
Phillies infielder Edmundo Sosa is working on learning center field, according to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The plan is for the Phillies to get Sosa some center field reps during spring training in the hope he’ll be in a position for that to be an option during the regular season. Sosa has appeared in all of 3 1/3 innings in the outfield in his career, but the bulk of his appearances for the Cardinals and Phillies have come in the middle infield spots. After slashing .227/.275/.369 with two home runs, Sosa projects as an infield option on the bench in 2023, with Trea Turner and Bryson Stott manning the positions full time. Veteran Josh Harrison is also projected as a bench option that can cover the infield positions, so adding center field to Sosa’s repertoire would certainly help to deepen the bench options available to manager Rob Thomson.

NL Notes: La Stella, Phillies, Sosa, Hand, Steele, Gray

By Mark Polishuk | October 2, 2022 at 6:35pm CDT

Tommy La Stella won’t play again this season as he continues to recover from neck spasms that sent him to the 10-day injured list since September 12. Multiple injuries have limited La Stella to 136 games over his first two seasons with the Giants, and though the team owes La Stella $11.5MM in 2023 (the final year of his three-year contract), The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser opines that La Stella might be a candidate to be designated for assignment. One would imagine the Giants would explore trades before going the DFA route, yet in either case, the club would very likely end up eating just about all of La Stella’s remaining salary, unless they can swap him for another undesirable contract.

The changing rules limiting defensive shifts will be a factor in San Francisco’s decision-making, as La Stella will now have to show more range in order to play second or third base, and La Stella’s mobility has been rather limited since undergoing Achilles surgery. Since a more athletic roster is a stated offseason goal of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, Slusser wonders if La Stella could be the odd man out if he is unable to play anywhere beyond first base or DH.

NL Central Notes: Cardinals, Mahle, Drury, Quintana, Blue Jays, Sosa

By Mark Polishuk | July 31, 2022 at 2:53pm CDT

The Cardinals’ search for starting pitching has taken them inside their division, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link) reports that St. Louis is one of the many clubs interested in Reds righty Tyler Mahle. With the Cards looking at all options for rotation help, it only makes sense that they’d be at least checking in on Mahle’s services.

The Phillies, Twins, and Mets are among the clubs linked to Mahle since the start of the season, while the Rangers also reportedly had interest during the offseason. With Luis Castillo already off the board, it’s fair to guess that most pitching-needy teams have spoken to the Reds about Mahle, and on paper the Cardinals have the kind of young talent that the Reds would surely demand. However, it is possible Cincinnati might want a higher price for moving Mahle to a division rival — as Morosi notes, the Reds and Cardinals haven’t completed a player-for-player trade since 1997, so it would count as a surprise on some level if Mahle ended up in St. Louis.

More notes from around the NL Central…

Just because Castillo has been traded doesn’t mean the Reds are necessarily likelier to hang onto Mahle, since CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson hears that Mahle and Brandon Drury are expected to both be on new teams after the deadline. Drury is a free agent after the season and thus an obvious trade chip, though Mahle is still under team control through 2023. But, it now seems like Cincinnati is going to dive into something close to a full rebuild, a process that really started over the winter when they moved several other veteran talents.
The Blue Jays are in the mix for Pirates starter Jose Quintana, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, along with such previously-reported suitors as the Yankees and White Sox. The veteran left-hander is having a bounce-back season after struggling in 2019-21, and Quintana could help bolster an inconsistent Toronto rotation. Pirates GM Ben Cherington previously worked in the Jays’ front office, so this familiarity with the AL East side’s prospects could help the Blue Jays in the bidding, though the two sides haven’t completed a player-for-player trade in the two-plus years since Cherington went to Pittsburgh.
The Yankees were one of the other teams interested in Edmundo Sosa before the Cardinals dealt Sosa to the Phillies, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Sosa would’ve been an interesting depth add to the Yankees’ infield, and it is even possible that Sosa could have worked his way into a timeshare with Isiah Kiner-Falefa at shortstop.

Cardinals, Phillies Swap Edmundo Sosa For JoJo Romero

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | July 30, 2022 at 1:00pm CDT

The Phillies and Cardinals announced agreement on a trade sending infielder Edmundo Sosa from St. Louis to Philadelphia for left-handed reliever JoJo Romero. Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of the Athletic first reported Sosa was being traded to Philadelphia. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in the past couple days that the Cards have been discussing trades involving Sosa and could bring Paul DeJong back to the big league roster.

The Cards and Phillies enter play Saturday tied for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. It’s rare to see clubs this close in the standings exchange big leaguers, but the teams’ needs lined up well enough to facilitate a deal. Sosa had surpassed DeJong on the depth chart late last season, receiving the lion’s share of shortstop playing time down the stretch and putting up a solid .271/.346/.389 line over his first extended run in the big leagues. Yet both players have since been supplanted, as the arrival of top prospect Nolan Gorman at second base has pushed Tommy Edman across the bag to shortstop.

Sosa, kicked to the bench in a utility capacity, has struggled significantly in 2022. He’s not collected a single homer in 131 plate appearances, hitting only .189/.244/.270 with a 29% strikeout rate. He’s out of minor league option years, so the Cardinals had to either keep Sosa on the active roster or make him available to other teams. They initially chose to option out DeJong to keep both players on the 40-man roster, but the latter has gotten out a strong run at Triple-A Memphis of late. DeJong has a .249/.313/.552 showing with 17 homers in 230 plate appearances since being optioned, and he’ll seemingly be recalled to back up Gorman, Edman and utilityman Brendan Donovan as a power-hitting depth infielder.

Philadelphia has a less robust collection of infielders than does St. Louis, giving them more motivation to keep Sosa on the active roster and hope he rediscovers something approaching his 2021 form. The Phils have relied on Bryson Stott and Didi Gregorius in the middle infield of late, and Gregorius has struggled for the second consecutive year. The forthcoming return of Jean Segura from the injured list figures to kick Stott back to shortstop, and it’s worth wondering how the Phillies will handle the infield mix at that point. Gregorius could move into a utility role, but his .218/.274/.320 line could put his roster spot into jeopardy. Philadelphia could also choose to option either of Johan Camargo or Yairo Munoz, each of whom has played sporadically (primarily spelling Gregorius against left-handed pitching) in a utility infield capacity.

Sosa is only 26 years old, and he’s controllable through the 2026 season. He’s likely to qualify for arbitration this offseason as a Super Two player, but he wouldn’t command an exorbitant salary coming off a rough showing in sporadic playing time this year. The Phillies could keep him around for a while as a depth infielder if they’re committed to keeping him on the active roster.

In exchange, the Phils send a left-handed bullpen arm to St. Louis. Romero has appeared in 25 MLB games over the past three seasons, pitching to a 7.89 ERA in 21 2/3 innings. The 25-year-old has been quite home run prone in the big leagues, but he’s averaged nearly 95 MPH on his fastball and received decent grades on both his changeup and slider while he was a prospect.

Romero has missed the bulk of the past two seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery last May, but he returned from the injured list a couple weeks ago. He’s in his second of three option seasons, so the Cards can move him between St. Louis and Memphis over the next year and a half if he holds his 40-man roster spot. St. Louis already has Genesis Cabrera, Zack Thompson, Packy Naughton and T.J. McFarland as left-handed relievers in the majors, but Romero adds a hard-throwing depth piece to the upper levels.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Cardinals Notes: Sosa, Gorman, Pitching

By Mark Polishuk | July 28, 2022 at 1:48pm CDT

The Cardinals have received trade calls on Nolan Gorman and Edmundo Sosa, Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, with an unknown American League team expressing particular interest in Sosa. It isn’t known if the Cards are close to a deal on either player, though it would seem like the scope of a trade involving Gorman would be quite different than the scope of a Sosa deal (assuming, of course, that both players wouldn’t be moved in the same swap).

Gorman is one of the game’s top prospects, and he has started his big league career with a respectable 110 wRC+ (from a .229/.303/.430 slash line and 10 home runs) over his first 198 plate appearances in the Show. Under normal circumstances, the Cardinals wouldn’t be looking to move such a potential cornerstone player at all, except Gorman has reportedly been part of the club’s discussions with the Nationals about Juan Soto. Given how St. Louis is deep in infield prospects, it isn’t out of the question that the Cardinals could include Gorman as part of a package for a proven superstar, though it would likely take a Soto-level special talent to spur such a move.

Sosa would naturally be far more of an expendable piece than Gorman, as Sosa has hit only .188/.244/.270 over 131 PA in part-time backup action this season. An international signing for the Cardinals back in 2012, Sosa had decent but unspectacular numbers during his time in the farm system, and didn’t hit much in a handful of big league games in 2018 and 2019. However, Sosa unexpectedly emerged as a regular at shortstop in 2021, as Paul DeJong’s struggles opened the door for Sosa to earn more playing time, and he responded with a .271/.346/389 slash line in 326 PA and excellent defense.

With this season’s downturn in production, Sosa has returned to a backup role, as Gorman and Tommy Edman have become the regular middle infield combo. Rookie Brendan Donovan has also cut into Sosa’s utilityman role, and yet with Sosa out of minor league options, St. Louis hasn’t been able to send Sosa to the minors without exposing him to waivers. If that wasn’t enough of a crunch, DeJong is hitting well at Triple-A, and could be working himself back into the Cardinals’ plans as a backup on the Major League roster.

Sosa is controlled through the 2026 season, and even if rival clubs might not necessarily see him as a long-term piece, he could fit into many rosters as versatile, glove-first infield depth. Sosa alone wouldn’t be the centerpiece of a major trade, but if the Cardinals were looking to package multiple players together, Sosa could be an interesting addition. For instance, a team that moves another infielder in a separate trade could then pivot to acquire Sosa to fill that hole on their roster for at least the rest of the 2022 season.

As much as the Soto trade rumors have caught the imagination of St. Louis fans, pitching seems to be as big a priority for the Cardinals heading into the deadline. The extent of these rotation help is yet to be determined, as Goold describes the Cards’ targets as “pitching depth on the edges of the roster,” while FanSided’s Robert Murray hears the team is looking for multiple starters, and “bigger, more meaningful upgrades than the J.A. Happ and Jon Lester additions from last season.”

To this end, the Cardinals have been prominently mentioned as suitors for Frankie Montas and Luis Castillo. It isn’t hard to imagine that the Athletics and Reds each inquired about Gorman or other top St. Louis youngsters in those trade talks, given the high asking prices that will undoubtedly be required to land those top starters.

COVID IL Notes: Wheeler, Arauz, Sosa, Wainwright

By James Hicks and Darragh McDonald | May 12, 2022 at 8:36pm CDT

Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, who’d been on the COVID IL since Sunday, has been cleared to rejoin the team and will start tonight’s game against the Dodgers, reports Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Enquirer. To make room for Wheeler on the active roster, the Phillies optioned left-hander Bailey Falter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. It’s a timely return for the Phillies, who’ll avoid a crunch in rotation following a pair of rainouts and a Sunday doubleheader against the Mets last weekend. Even with Wheeler’s return, the rotation is still down a man with Zach Eflin still on the COVID list. However, the club has an off-day on Monday, meaning they can survive with four starters for a couple of turns through the rotation. After five starts this year, Wheeler’s ERA is sitting at 4.10, with a 22.5% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate.

Rounding up the latest virus-related transactions…

The Red Sox announced that they have reinstated Jonathan Arauz from the COVID-related IL. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-hander Josh Taylor has been transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Taylor has somewhat quietly become an important part of the Red Sox bullpen. Over the previous three seasons, he’s thrown 102 1/3 innings with a 3.69 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. He’s gradually earned himself some higher-leverage outings, notching 15 holds and a save last year. However, he began this year on the injured list due to back soreness. He began a rehab assignment last month, though that was paused after the issue lingered. The Red Sox evidently don’t think he’s close to a return, based on today’s transaction. Taylor will be eligible to return 60 days from his original placement on the IL, meaning he could be back in early June, though the club hasn’t provided any timetable for his next steps.
The Cardinals announced that Edmundo Sosa was activated from the COVID IL today. Kramer Robertson was optioned in a corresponding move. With the recent demotion of Paul DeJong, there’s an opening for Sosa to take over as the everyday shortstop in St. Louis. Last year, he broke out with a .271/.346/.389 showing for a 104 wRC+. However, he got off to a slow start this year, hitting just .160/.250/.160 in a small ten-game sample before landing on the injured list. He’ll be jockeying with Brendan Donovan, who is off to a hot start to his MLB career. Over his first 12 games in the big leagues, Donovan is hitting .278/.381/.556, 169 wRC+. Another path the team could eventually take would be to slide Tommy Edman over to shortstop and call up second base prospect Nolan Gorman, who is hitting .287/.350/.658 in Triple-A this year for a wRC+ of 157.
There’s one Cardinal that is still on the COVID IL, right-hander Adam Wainwright. It seems that he is back with the club and could be taking the ball for Sunday’s game, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Packy Naughton recently made a spot start to cover for Wainwright and would likely be bumped to the bullpen or optioned to the minors if Waino can indeed return this weekend. The 40-man roster currently has a vacancy, meaning a corresponding move won’t be necessary in that regard. Through six starts this year, Wainwright has a 3.18 ERA, 20% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 57.6% ground ball rate.

Cardinals Place Edmundo Sosa On COVID-IL, Recall Juan Yepez

By Sean Bavazzano | May 3, 2022 at 7:28pm CDT

The Cardinals have placed infielder Edmundo Sosa on the COVID-19-related injured list according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. First baseman Juan Yepez has been called up to take Sosa’s spot on the roster, though he won’t join the team in Kansas City until tomorrow.

Sosa’s placement on the IL corresponds with a small COVID breakout among the Cardinals’ traveling party, as three staff members and a clubhouse attendant have also tested positive. Jones notes that Sosa is “mildly symptomatic” and will need to return a pair of negative tests and become asymptomatic before he is able to rejoin the team. Earlier today President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak claimed that the club is “probably 95%” vaccinated, which lends some hope that this will be the only COVID-themed transaction for the team this week.

The 26-year-old infielder heads to the IL having started just six of the team’s first 22 games. In that brief showing, Sosa has slashed a tepid .160/.250/.160 with an uncharacteristic 42.9% strikeout rate. The team’s active roster is now a bit light on shortstop depth, but should be able to weather Sosa’s absence with starting shortstop Paul DeJong and versatile second baseman Tommy Edman on hand.

The 24-year-old Yepez meanwhile will see his first taste of big league action since a surprise cameo last October. The right-handed hitter is expected to see some action off the bench and in the corner outfield during his call-up, with Paul Goldschmidt entrenched at first base. There’s a case to get Yepez as many at-bats as possible, as he’s continued last year’s tear through the upper minors and Arizona Fall League with an 8-homer, .960 OPS showing across 21 Triple-A games this year.

Cardinals Notes: Hicks, Reyes, Designated Hitter, Shortstop, DeJong,

By Anthony Franco | March 11, 2022 at 11:04pm CDT

The Cardinals have made one relatively minor move since the lockout was lifted, signing reliever Drew VerHagen to a two-year deal. He steps into a bullpen that also features Giovanny Gallegos, Ryan Helsley and T.J. McFarland and seems as if it’ll include flamethrowing righties Alex Reyes and Jordan Hicks.

St. Louis brass has floated the idea of each of Reyes and Hicks lengthening out into rotation roles over the offseason. Yet president of baseball operations John Mozeliak cast some doubt on that possibility when speaking with reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) yesterday.

“I do think getting Alex and Jordan stretched is going to be much more challenging than in a normal time,” Mozeliak said in reference to the ban on staff members from communicating with players on their 40-man rosters between December 2 and March 10. While he didn’t specifically rule a rotation conversion out, that prospect always seemed a bit of a reach — particularly with regards to Hicks. Hicks pitched only ten innings in 2021, as he went on the injured list in early May with elbow inflammation that proved season-ending. That came on the heels of a June 2019 Tommy John surgery that had wiped out his prior season and a half, so building him towards a starter’s workload would’ve been a challenge even had there not been a work stoppage.

Reyes logged a full season in 2021, tossing 72 1/3 frames over 69 appearances. That marks almost exactly the same amount of work Reyes took on at the major league level from 2016-20 combined, as he also required a Tommy John procedure (in February 2017, in his case). He struggled quite a bit in the second half, and his 16.4% walk rate was higher than that of any starting pitcher last year. Between those innings and strike-throwing concerns, Reyes might also have had trouble cracking a starting rotation that currently projects to include Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas.

Mozeliak also addressed the position player mix, suggesting the club might look externally for help in handling the designated hitter spot now available for National League teams (Jones link). He suggested that internal options like Lars Nootbaar or Juan Yepez could be considered for that role but noted there may be “short term solutions” available on the market. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported during the lockout that former Pirates infielder Colin Moran was of interest to the Cards, presumably as an option for such a role.

One position at which it doesn’t seem the Cardinals will consider outside help is shortstop. Speaking with Dani Wexelman of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this afternoon (Twitter link), Mozeliak downplayed the possibility of upgrading there. “I don’t think so,” he replied when asked if they’d acquire another shortstop. “We met with Paul (DeJong) prior to the lockout. We told him we thought he could be our shortstop. … Obviously, there’s going to be some competition in this camp with somebody like Edmundo Sosa, but in terms of going outside of that, I don’t think that makes a whole lot of sense for us.”

That’s not a surprise, as reports have increasingly suggested the Cardinals seem confident in DeJong’s ability to bounce back from a second straight down year at the plate. He rates highly in the eyes of public defensive metrics, and last year’s career-best barrel rate suggests he can continue to at least bring some power to the table offensively. St. Louis was mentioned earlier in the offseason as a speculative fit for star free agents like Carlos Correa or Trevor Story, but Mozeliak’s comments seem to close the book on the chances they make a run at either player.

Cardinals Didn’t Actively Pursue Free Agent Shortstop Help Before The Lockout

By Anthony Franco | January 20, 2022 at 7:42pm CDT

The Cardinals have entered each of the past four seasons with Paul DeJong as the Opening Day shortstop. He’d earned the starting nod in 2018 after hitting .285/.325/.532 across 443 plate appearances as a rookie the year prior. DeJong’s next two seasons weren’t quite as strong, but he still combined slightly above-average offense with highly-regarded glovework.

Over the last two years, though, DeJong’s production at the dish has tailed off. Going back to the start of 2020, he’s just a .213/.295/.378 hitter over 576 trips to the plate. That led to a fall down the batting order and eventually, a reduction in playing time. Edmundo Sosa took the lion’s share of at-bats in the season’s final month, and erstwhile skipper Mike Shildt turned to Sosa in a must-win Wild Card game.

With how the second half of the season played out, it seemed like DeJong could wind up as a trade candidate this winter. The free agent shortstop class was loaded with stars, and the Cardinals don’t have many obvious areas of need on the position player side. Yet there was no indication St. Louis made much effort to move DeJong in the early stages of the offseason, and Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch now writes that the Cardinals “were not active in discussions with any player in this marquee class of free-agent shortstops” prior to the lockout.

While it’s possible the team ignites free agent discussions after the transactions freeze — Carlos Correa and Trevor Story remain available — it seems likelier shortstop will be DeJong’s job to lose. Not only was he not the subject of any trade rumors of note, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and general manager Mike Girsch gave DeJong a public vote of confidence at November’s GM Meetings. According to Goold, Cardinals executives also privately expressed confidence in DeJong’s ability to right the ship and reclaim the shortstop job in 2022. (Those conversations also occurred before the lockout, which includes a prohibition on contact between team staff and players on the 40-man roster).

DeJong’s contact rate and overall average exit velocity have each dipped over the past couple seasons. Yet he actually barreled balls up at a career-best 10.6% clip last year, and his exit velocity on balls hit in the air hasn’t meaningfully changed. That provides some reason for optimism DeJong’s offensive production can improve, particularly if last season’s .212 batting average on balls in play regresses closer to his .282 career mark. The 28-year-old isn’t merely resting on his laurels awaiting better batted ball fortune, however, as he chats with Goold about changes he’s made to his offseason training routine.

Regardless of whether he rebounds offensively, DeJong should be a key part of a high-end defensive infield. He’s coming off a season regarded highly by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average, and DRS has pegged DeJong as a plus gloveman throughout his career. Sosa remains on hand as a potential fallback option, coming off a nice .271/.346/.389 showing. DeJong is guaranteed around $6.167MM next season and is controllable through 2025 under the terms of the contract extension he signed four seasons ago.

Trade Candidate: Paul DeJong

By Anthony Franco | October 23, 2021 at 8:00pm CDT

One of the biggest decisions for the Cardinals this winter is how to handle the shortstop position. That hasn’t been the case in a while. Paul DeJong had a great rookie season in 2017, and he’s been the Cards’ Opening Day shortstop for each of the four seasons since.

Going into 2022, it no longer seems to be DeJong’s job. That rookie season was propped up by a .349 batting average on balls in play that DeJong never seemed likely to sustain, but he was a solid hitter over the next couple years. Coupled with high-end defensive metrics, he was still a highly valuable player. DeJong’s bat has taken another step down over the last two years, though, and that seemingly puts his future with the organization in question.

Since the start of 2020, DeJong has tallied 576 plate appearances, nearly the equivalent of a typical season. He’s hit just .213/.295/.378, a mark that makes him fourteen percentage points below the league average by measure of wRC+. DeJong still brings some power upside, popping 22 home runs with a .165 ISO (slugging minus batting average) that’s right around average. He has struck out in an elevated 26.6% of his trips to the plate, though. Paired with a very low .254 BABIP, that has led DeJong to post one of the lower batting averages and on-base marks among regular players.

DeJong is still generally effective at barreling balls up, but he’s also had far too many wasted plate appearances. He’s an extreme fly ball hitter, which can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Hitting the ball in the air gives a player plenty of opportunities to do damage, but weakly hit fly balls aren’t especially useful. DeJong has had his share of softly hit balls in the air, with a 90.9 MPH average exit velocity on air balls that ranks in the 42nd percentile leaguewide (minimum 1000 pitches seen). That middle-of-the-road batted ball quality has come as DeJong’s contact rate has dropped a few percentage points over the past two seasons, falling from roughly league average to a bit below.

While DeJong hasn’t been an especially productive hitter in recent seasons, he hasn’t been without value. Defensive metrics have still pegged him as a solid or better defender. Over the past two seasons, DeJong has rated as six runs above average at shortstop by DRS, while Statcast has him at two plays above average. Even average play at shortstop is valuable, and DeJong’s probably at least a tick above par defensively.

Because of that defensive acumen, DeJong has been valued at around two wins above replacement since the start of 2020 by both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference. That’s roughly league average for the amount he has played. So even with his bat going backwards, DeJong’s still a capable player who is just two years removed from an All-Star berth. He’d be an upgrade over some teams’ current shortstop situations.

Speculatively speaking, the Yankees, Phillies, Nationals, Angels, Rangers, A’s, Astros, Tigers and Twins are among the teams who might be in the shortstop market this winter. With a star-studded crop of free agent shortstops, DeJong won’t be priority number one for any of those clubs. They can’t all land high-end free agent options, though, and some could view DeJong as a reasonable fallback option.

In March 2018, DeJong and the Cardinals agreed on a contract extension, the guaranteed portion of which runs through 2023. He’ll make $6MM next season and $9MM the following year, and he’s guaranteed at least a $2MM buyout on a 2024 club option valued at $12.5MM. The contract also contains another club option covering 2025. Given DeJong’s offensive struggles the past couple seasons, that deal no longer looks like a massive bargain. But it’s certainly not an outlandish detriment to a team’s finances either, and the two options give a potential acquiring team some upside if DeJong manages to turn things around at the dish.

That all leads to an interesting offseason decision for the St. Louis front office. DeJong’s 2022 salary isn’t outlandish, but they might want to look into the top shortstops available themselves. Alternatively, they could trade DeJong and rely on the player who became the de facto shortstop down the stretch this past season: Edmundo Sosa.

Sosa has long been viewed by public prospect evaluators as a future glove-first utilityman. He outperformed those expectations as a rookie, though, hitting .271/.346/.389 with six homers in 326 plate appearances. Sosa didn’t walk or hit for much power, but his aggressive approach helped keep his strikeouts low as well.

Turning shortstop over to Sosa based on half a season’s worth of work would be a risk, but he did enough down the stretch to seemingly surpass DeJong on the organizational depth chart. It’d be defensible to give Sosa a chance to seize the job, particularly given this regime’s solid track record in developing position players who overperform their general prospect expectations.

How to handle the shortstop position going into 2022 is a key question for president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, GM Mike Girsch and the rest of the front office. That’s unfamiliar territory in St. Louis, but DeJong’s recent drop-off at the dish makes it possible he could wind up on the move in the coming months.

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