The Cardinals’ Messy Outfield Situation

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Jocephus
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The Cardinals’ Messy Outfield Situation

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by Craig Edwards
March 3, 2020
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-cardina ... situation/
So if we put Bader in center at least most of the time, there are two starting spot for Carlson, Fowler, and O’Neill. The projections say Carlson is the better outfielder of the three, and his prospect status indicates his ceiling is probably higher as well. There are going to be some service time considerations; Carlson could be held down in the minors for a few weeks to gain an extra year of service time, though that’s not a tactic that has been used by the Cardinals in the past. Carlson is not yet on the 40-man roster, but that’s an obstacle easily overcome.

A neutral evaluation of the three players would give Carlson one of the remaining corner spots, creating a toss-up between O’Neill and Fowler. While spring stats aren’t indicative of talent level (given the small sample size of plate appearances and the potential disparity in opponents’ skill levels), it should be noted that none of the play so far this spring has served to change the order of the projections, with O’Neill and Carlson producing and Fowler not. It’s reasonable for the Cardinals to want to actually see what they might have in O’Neill; while perhaps less reasonable to play Fowler due to his contract status, it is something that teams do all the time. It’s possible those two factors might be enough to keep Carlson in the minors.

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Re: The Cardinals’ Messy Outfield Situation

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Mo: Carlson sure is making it hard to not bring him north with the big club. I just hope it’s Fowler’s job he’s taking when he makes it up instead of Bader or O’Neil. I know it’s small sample, but what has he shown in the past year that says he wouldn’t immediately be better than Fowler right now?

Baby Yoda: Odds Dylan Carlson makes the STL roster? If so, what does the outfield look like? Fowler, Carlson, Bader, O’Neill, Edman all have a claim they should start (none is iron-clad).


Ben Clemens: Yeah, if he keeps playing like this, I think it’s likely he’ll be on the opening day roster.
Ben Clemens: I follow Derrick Goold on Twitter and it seems like every other tweet is that Carlson is on base again.
Ben Clemens: Small sample size and all, but he’s hitting the ball well and walking a lot.
Ben Clemens: Let’s be real, he would start out taking one of O’Neill or Bader’s jobs, probably O’Neill.
Ben Clemens: If Fowler is a league average hitter again I think he’ll keep getting playing time this year. If he struggles to start out, they might go triple-young very quickly.
Ben Clemens: And Bader is never a lock to hit well enough that the team is comfortable using him, even if I think that’s short-sighted.
Ben Clemens: I’d be using Bader as much as possible, because it’s SUPER valuable to have defense that good. If he can develop into a league average bat he’s Kevin Kiermaier.

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MinorLeagueGuy
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Re: The Cardinals’ Messy Outfield Situation

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It's shaping up to be a travesty. Fowler will somehow weasel himself into starting for the 1st month. Also, I'm recently reminded how much I hate the way he catches flyballs..

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