Friday, June 14, 2013

Should the Cardinals trade David Freese? I don't think so.

After a slow start to the season, which included a stint on the D.L., and a hot start by Kolten Wong at AAA, many Cardinals fans were thinking that the team should trade David Freese, put Matt Carpenter at his natural position (third) and call up Wong.

It got so bad that even Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports picked up on it, saying that trading David Freese made sense financially, as Freese earns $3 million and will likely get a raise through arbitration during the offseason.

However, sometime its not always about the money.

Freese, a World Series hero and local kid made good would sorely be missed, not just by the Cardinals fans who love him, but also because he is an important cog in the Cardinals lineup.

Its no surprise that in April, when Freese was struggling with a .163/.255/.204 line, the Cardinals went 15-11 for a .577 winning percentage.  However, in May, when Freese turned things around and hit .299/.365/.429, the Cardinals were 20-7 (.741).  Put another way, in games that the Cardinals have won, Freese has hit .330/.416/.450 and in games that the Cards have lost he has only hit .194/.231/.258.

That's not to say that Freese is the most important piece of the Cardinals offense, but he is an important piece and the offense works best when everyone is clicking.

I think it doesn't have to be a case of Wong vs Freese.  I think the Cardinals could carry both players next year (along with Carpenter) and make it work.

Here's the plan.  The Cardinals rotate Freese, Wong and Carpenter at the second base and third base positions next year.  On days that Carpenter starts at second, Wong can come in as a late inning defensive replacement.  In addition, by rotating the players, it would help keep Freese, a notoriously injury prone player, fresh and (hopefully) healthy.

Its not a perfect plan, but it might allow the Cardinals to trade Daniel Descalso or, better yet, dump little used Ty Wigginton, while improving their bench as a whole. (In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing the Cardinals release Wigginton and call up Wong now, but that's a discussion for another day).

Overall, I think that by keeping Freese, Carpenter and Wong, the Cardinals will be a better team in the long run.

4 comments:

  1. The Cards just signed Wigginton to a 2-year/$5M deal before this season. They aren't going to just release him and pay him for doing nothing, unfortunately.

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  2. Why not? They're paying him for doing nothing now.

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  3. How about moving Wong to shortstop and demoting Kozma or trading him?

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  4. Trading Freese would be typical of the cardinals management that pays for no effort and fails to reward anyone that has placed us where we are. Lack of any loyalty will bite thos franchose. You wait and see.

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