Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong, unable to handle fastballs as he used to, has batted .197 and .157 in the past two seasons.
www.stltoday.com
Rick Hummel
After a second consecutive sub-.200 season, Cardinals shortstop
Paul DeJong not surprisingly is seeking a change.
“I know I’ve got a lot to work with,” said DeJong, a 2019 All-Star who hit .157 this season after batting .197 the year before and has lost his starting job. “A clean slate would be good.”
But he doesn’t mean that “clean slate” should be somewhere else. He isn’t angling for a trade. He wants to be the shortstop here.
“Yeah, definitely. I want to be here and finish this contract strong and set myself up for the future,” DeJong said after the Cardinals had been bounced from the wild-card round in two games by the Phillies.
Next year, DeJong will make a base of $9 million in the sixth and final year of a six-year contract he signed after his rookie season of 2017, when he hit 25 homers, drove in 65 runs and batted .285, which by far has been his highest average in the majors.
He hit 30 homers but batted only .233 in his All-Star year of 2019, and his past two years have been disasters. After batting .130 for the first month of the 2022 season, he was banished to Class AAA Memphis, where it appeared he had rebranded himself by hitting 17 homers, driving in 54 runs and slugging .552 in 201 at-bats.
Upon his return to the Cardinals in late July, the 29-year-old DeJong was inserted into the lineup and gave the Cardinals a two-week flash of what they had seen before and had hoped to witness again. Homering in Washington in each of his first two games back, DeJong hit .295 for a 13-game span with four homers and five doubles.
--------------------------------------------------------
In all my years watching MLB I don't remember a player in either league having such a terrible and embarrassing season as PDJ.........His stats from this year and even including 2021 make Mario Mendoza , the player who the Mendoza line is named after , look like an All Star.......
his horrible addiction to swinging at pitches outside the strike zone and especially slider's outside and in the dirt shows he has no idea and no skills as a productive MLB batter.............
Yeah , I know he has had years of 30 homers and made the All Star team one year , and is proclaimed to be at least an adequate fielding SS , but he has regressed so far that he has no path to a return to being considered as a roster named player for 2023 with the Cardinals.........
What are the possibilities for next season ????......................................
1......... Return to the Cardinals as a roster bench player based on his $ 9 million contract ???
2......... Traded , somewhat similar to the Dexter Fowler scenario of a couple years ago ???
3......... Outright release ??????
4......... Designated for assignment to Memphis ???
5......... Other ???
I'm sure PDJ would be happy with option # 1 or even option # 4.........
How viable is option # 2 ??..................How much salary would the Cardinals have to absorb ??..............What would the Cardinals return be on a trade ??
How likely is option # 3 ??.............Based on the Cardinals past I would hazard a guess that option # 3 is the LEAST likely to happen.........
Option # 5 is a black hole to me as I made this post , as to what else is a possibility ??
All I know is PDJ is NOT MLB worthy of a roster spot with the Cardinals if I was in charge of player personnel decisions...........
I would try option # 2 as much as possible , but the other options other than option # 3 are NOT on my list of what if's ...............
It should be a busy off season for the Cardinals , with starting pitching and catching at the top of the list of things to do ........Outfielders is a close second but I think bringing up Jordan Walker and giving him a long audition is absolutely necessary......
Signing Quintana to a 2-3 year contract with incentives is also a necessity.................He's earned it after the performance he had after being acquired......
The rest of the Cardinals player movement is prime Hot Stove League material and I look forward with the hope of the Cardinals spending enough $$$ to reach the next level in the pursuit of WS title # 12.......
As always , this is Just My Humble Opinion...........................