Fixing the absence of Peralta in St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup
Barely into Spring Training 2016, the St. Louis Cardinals have already sustained a rather serious injury to one of their key players. Shortstop Jhonny Peralta figures to have torn ligaments in his left thumb and could be on the shelf for 2-3 months time.
Peralta, 33, is an aging veteran but was still a valuable presence for the Cardinals in 2015. He played in his third career All-Star Game and hit .275/.334/.411 with 17 home runs and 71 RBI. While Peralta’s defense was nothing out of this world according to metrics like dWAR (0.0) and UZR (-7.2), he was a reliable bat and an experienced big leaguer in the clubhouse.
If the Cardinals hope to compete in what should be a stout NL Central again with the likes of the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, they’re going to need all the help they can get if the goal is to approach 100 wins again. Jason Heyward was already poached from them by the Cubbies in free agency and vital backstop Yadier Molina is also questionable for Opening Day with a thumb injury.
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For the first time in awhile, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals and the beginning of the regular season. In the outfield, Matt Holliday turned 36 and and appears to be regressing. Center field and right field will likely be manned by two prospects, Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty, respectively, who have 666 combined career at-bats between the two of them. Creepy. Kolten Wong should continue to improve at second base, Matt Carpenter is reliable at third, while first base is a bit of a question mark between Brandon Moss and Matt Adams.
The rotation should be a strong point, even though Lance Lynn is out for the season and Adam Wainwright is returning to the rotation from a torn achilles tendon after only getting in brief relief work in the latter half of 2015.
David Cameron at FanGraphs thinks Erick Aybar would be a great candidate to help fill the void of not having Peralta in St. Louis initially. He has one year remaining on his contract and the Atlanta Braves are in no position to win this year amidst the second year of a rebuild.
Another worthy option would be the defensively gifted but offensively challenged Nick Ahmed in Arizona. The D-backs traded for Jean Segura and have Chris Owings at second base, though he played close to 800 innings at shortstop for them over the last two seasons.
In terms of other impending free agents for 2017 with abilities to play shortstop who won’t be contributing a whole bunch to their present clubs this year, Darwin Barney in Toronto, Stephen Drew in Washington or even Jimmy Rollins with the White Sox could be options. All have to be looked at as better fits than Jedd Gyorko, a second baseman by trade, career .236 hitter and Peralta’s current backup.
Fashioning a trade might be the tough part for the St. Louis Cardinals and expecting help from the farm isn’t realistic. Shortstop Edmundo Sosa is their fifth ranked prospect, but at only 20 years of age, has an expected arrival in MLB of 2018. One thing is for sure, if the Cards hope to compete in the NL Central this season, they’ll need to fix what will undoubtedly become an issue at shortstop in April, May and possibly beyond.