Bernie’s Redbird Review: It’s Happening Again To The Cardinals. Tommy Edman Is An Instant Smash Hit For The Dodgers.

THE REDBIRD REVIEW

Here we go again. The Cardinals cannot escape their recent past and the decisions they’ve made to part ways with several players.

Let’s update the list:

TOMMY EDMAN

He’s going bananas for his new team, the Dodgers. After his first 21 games with Los Angeles, Edman went into Thursday with a .300 average and .500 slugging percentage. He’d thrashed for four home runs and two doubles in only 80 at-bats. And through Wednesday, the switch-hitter had pummeled left-handed pitchers for three homers, a double and a triple in just 28 plate appearances. His barrage against lefties included a .444 average and .889 slugging percentage.

(This is the part when I update the Cardinals’ stats against left-handed pitching in 2024, through Wednesday’s game: .229 avg, .292 OBP and .358 slug. Dreadful.)

This week Edman homered twice on Tuesday … and did it again with two home runs Wednesday. Yes. He did that. Two home runs in back-to-back games. And in Wednesday’s power-ball show, Edman hit a home run from each side of the plate for the first time in his big-league career.

In his last 13 games Edman batted .353 with a .608 slug. The Dodgers have been using him in center field and at shortstop, and he’s stolen five bases for LA without getting caught.

Stat that will make you wince: when playing as a center fielder, Edman has four home runs in 57 at-bats. As a team, the Cardinals have gotten four home runs from their center fielders in 472 at-bats.

“I feel like I’ve kind of gotten locked into a good routine in the cage, working on mechanics and having consistent movements in my swing and the results are paying off,” Edman told reporters in Los Angeles.

Just to recap, the Cardinals traded their popular, super-utility dude to the Dodgers in a three-way deal that transported White Sox starting pitcher Erick Fedde to St. Louis. Landing Fedde was a smart idea because the Cardinals have to upgrade their rotation (again) and Fedde is under contract through 2025.

Until the trade deadline, Edman had been sidelined all season after undergoing wrist surgery last offseason, and he had several setbacks in his injury rehab along the way. His salary was $2.5 million this year and he’ll be paid a guaranteed $9.5 million for 2025. Edman can become a free agent after next season.

We can make the case that Tommy was expandable. The Cardinals had another super-utility dude on the roster in Brendan Donovan – and another super-utility dude on the way in Thomas Saggese.

Moreover, the Redbirds had just made J.J. Wetherholt the seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft; many third-party draft evaluators considered him the best pure hitter on the board. Wetherholt is a shortstop who will probably be moved to second base or possibly third base.

The Cardinals planned to make Edman their regular center fielder but his injury obviously changed the outlook. Management decided to trade one year and two months of Edman for two months and one year of Fedde. (That’s based on the two months left in the season at the time of the trade, plus all of 2025.)

There was logic in their thinking, but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss what Edman is doing for the Dodgers so far. Edman going elsewhere to thrive – immediately – fits a disturbing pattern with the St. Louis front office and field staff.

As of now the Cardinals would go into 2025 with either Michael Siani or Victor Scott II as their starter in CF. Siani is excellent defensively but has limited power. Scott has strong upside offensively and is working to improve his first-step defense. Between them, Scott and Siani have a combined 467 major-league plate appearances.

Unless the Cardinals bring in an established center fielder with proven hitting talent – I’d be surprised if they did – it’s natural to question whether center field will be an area of above-average offense in 2025. We saw positive flashes of Scott’s hitting skill after he worked with Ryan Ludwick to add a toe-tap to his swing. Siani’s season batting line is pedestrian – .246 average, .286 OBP and .308 slug – but he’s batted .291 with a .337 OBP since July 5.

TYLER O’NEILL

OK, we kind of knew this would happen. The enigmatic strong man was set up for a fresh start in Boston this season, and he’s walloped his way into the hearts of the Red Sox faithful with 30 home runs, 17 doubles and a .546 slugging percentage. O’Neill has homered every 12.4 at-bats, hits for a load of power at Fenway Park and on the road. Bro’Neill has missed time with injuries (of course) but had made his way onto the field for 101 games through Wednesday. That’s the most he’s played in a season since 2021. And this is his best season offensively since busting loose for the 2021 Cardinals for 34 homers, 80 RBIs, a .560 slug and .912 OPS.

O’Neill was hospitalized in August with a leg infection, and it took him time to reheat once he returned. But with the Red Sox barely alive in the quest for a wild-card spot, O’Neill has clouted five homers with a .350 batting average in his last five games. He beat the Orioles with a three-run walkoff homer in the 10th inning Wednesday at Fenway.

“He was in the hospital, doing nothing, and to try to catch up with big-league pitching, it was hard,” Boston manager Alex Cora told reporters late Wednesday evening. “But little by little, he’s been feeling great… It feels like every pitch, every at-bat, he’s going to do damage with it. And we needed that one. That was huge.”

A frequent resident of the Injured List in St. Louis had reached the end of the line with the Cardinals. They ran out of patience – and I don’t blame them – and decided to move him just to move him. The Cards traded him to Boston for two pitchers including high-velocity reliever prospect Nick Robertson.

This turned out poorly for the Cardinals. Though Robertson showed a promising strikeout punch in his brief time with the Cardinals – averaging 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings – he developed elbow trouble, went on the IL, and didn’t appear in a game for St. Louis after May 19. His numbers at Triple A Memphis were terrible.

The Cardinals waived Roberston and he was claimed by the Angels. He has a 9.00 ERA for their Triple affiliate in 10 innings. The other pitcher the Cardinals received from Boston – right-hander Victor Santos – has a 5.76 ERA in 75 innings at Triple A Memphis. He’s been awful as a starter and just OK as a reliever. But Santos is only 24, and his career has been sidetracked by injuries. I suppose there’s a chance Santos can develop into something.

For now we can say the Cardinals gave O’Neill away. And the truth is, there wasn’t much of a market for his services. Not with his injury history. Not with pending free agency after this season. And not after he batted .229 with a mediocre .397 slugging percentage for the Cardinals across his final two seasons here.

Entering his walk year, I assume O’Neill was fired up by his agent Scott Boras – and is highly motivated to play often and show that he can be an exciting power source. The Cardinals only saw that from O’Neill for one season. And I don’t believe O’Neill would have powered up like this had the Cardinals kept him for 2024.

JUAN YEPEZ

I’m still not sure why the Cardinals declined to offer Yepez a contract after the 2023 season. I didn’t make a fuss over it at the time, but when we look at what he’s done for the Washington Nationals, I think it’s fair to reexamine the Cardinals’ decision.

As a rookie in 2022, Yepez gave the team a boost early in the season after being promoted to the majors for the first time. He slugged .447 for the 2022 Cardinals and drilled 12 homers and 13 doubles in 250 at-bats. He came off the bench to blast a two-run, pinch homer against the Phillies to give the Cardinals a late 2-0 lead in Game 1 of the wild-series. The Redbirds blew the lead in the ninth and were swept in two games.

Granted, 2023 was a bad season for Yepez. He didn’t do much at Memphis, hitting only nine homers and slugging a mediocre .414 in 384 plate appearances. And he did next to nothing in 28 games for the 2023 Cardinals. And we know that Yepez is weak defensively, but the Nationals had the luxury of parking Yepez at first base and keeping them there – letting him play and play in a low-pressure rebuilding year.

In 50 games since Washington promoted Yepez from Triple A in early July, Yepez has hit .287 with a .340 OBP and .448 slug. His OPS+ translates into an offensive performance that’s 24 percent above league average. And his right-handed swing has slobbered left-handed pitching for a .475 slug and .828 OPS. Did you know that the 2024 Cardinals are feeble vs. lefty pitchers?

Again, I generally understand why the Cardinals set Yepez free. But something about this is disturbing. It fit the abnormal pattern: young hitter does a great job, sparks excitement, makes a positive impression, even comes up big in the postseason, sinks into a slump … and no one within the St. Louis baseball structure knew how to get Yepez back on track. He had to go to a new home and work for different baseball people to inflate his career. The Cardinals just let him go. This keeps happening and it’s crazy.

DYLAN CARLSON

Well, after a hot start with Tampa Bay, Carlson has faded into the St. Louis version of himself.

— First 13 games for the Rays: .316 average, .409 OBP, .579 slug, .988 OPS, three home runs, nine RBIs.

— Last 15 games for the Rays through Wednesday: .135 average, .211 OBP, .154 slug, .306 OPS and a whopping 35 percent strikeout rate.

The Cardinals received an OK reliever (Shawn Armstrong) in the trade for Carlson. Armstrong pitched well for the Cards, posting a 2.84 ERA in 11 appearances. But the front office designated Armstrong for assignment, and he signed on with the Cubs to serve as a lower-leverage reliever. He’ll be a free agent after the season. He wouldn’t have returned here for 2025, but I don’t know how much that mattered. That Cardinal front office is a curious bunch.

THE DISTANT PAST

We’ve all replayed and reviewed the Randy Arozarena trade/mistake a million times. And yes, their decision to designate Adolis Garcia for assignment in December of 2019 to open a 40-man roster spot for pitcher Kwang Hyun Kim has been cited endlessly.

There’s no defending the Arozarena trade that brought highly regarded Tampa Bay pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore to St. Louis. And that remains true even though (A) Arozarena’s career had leveled off to an extent, prompting Tampa Bay to trade him to Seattle this season, and (B) Liberatore has emerged as a strong asset in the 2024 Cardinal bullpen. And Libby is still young.

As for Garcia, never mind that the Texas Rangers – who added him after the Cardinals let him go – later designated Garcia for assignment early in 2021 to clear 40-man roster space for pitcher Mike Foltynewicz. (The pitcher went 2-12 with a 5.44 ERA for the ‘21 Rangers.)

At that point all 29 other teams — including St. Louis — took a pass as Garcia cleared waivers. Concerned over outfielder injuries, the Rangers had Garcia to rejoin them in 2021 spring training as a non-roster invitee. It worked out well for the Rangers, who got a second chance with Garcia. It paid off.

Garcia peaked with his All-Star season in 2023, banging 39 homers and driving in 107 runs during the regular season. He was phenomenal in the Rangers’ drive to the 2023 World Series championship, slamming eight homers, driving in 22 runs, and slugging .726 in 15 postseason games. (Garcia has struggled in 2024, but that’s beside the point.)

It was kind of unsettling for Cardinals fans to see Garcia and Arozarena start in the outfield for the American League team in the 2023 All-Star game.

Lane Thomas has been mentioned as a member of the club – players the Cardinals gave up on – but this was a different case. After hitting .104 in 28 early-season games for the 2021 Cardinals, the injury-prone outfielder was having a solid season at Triple A Memphis when the Cardinals flipped him at the trade deadline. They sent Thomas to Washington for the respected veteran starter Jon Lester.

The Cardinals were desperate for starting pitching, Lester definitely helped, and his presence was a positive factor in the team securing a wild-card playoff spot. Lester’s early starts as a Cardinal were mostly bad, but over a seven-start stretch that began Aug. 25 he pitched to a 2.66 ERA and the Redbirds won five of the seven games. It was a good trade for Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak.

Who will be the next Cardinals’ hitter to tap into their full potential after leaving St. Louis? I’m not sure, but I’d probably put down a few quid on Lars Nootbaar.

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has provided informed opinions and perspective on St. Louis sports through his columns, radio shows and podcasts since 1985.

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Stats used in my baseball columns are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Statcast, StatHead, Baseball Savant, Baseball Prospectus, Brooks Baseball Net, and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise noted.