The Cardinals are in a very familiar place as of late, a place the Cardinals were in all of last offseason, which is a holding pattern of sorts. The holding pattern being caused by potential trades that will probably happen but haven’t yet. The Cardinals are in a more advantageous position now though, basically waiting for a team to capitulate to the demand for Brendan Donovan as opposed to getting zero calls from teams interested in Nolan Arenado. The latter admittedly is still happening, but at least Arenado will be more receptive to waiving the no trade clause this time.
Even if the Cardinals do not trade Donovan, I imagine they would still want another outfielder. Donovan is likely targeted for nearly a full-time outfielder role if he stays on the team. The outfield situation is such, however, that even if that were the case, I still think they need another outfielder. That says more about my desire to see Jordan Walker dominate in AAA before getting another MLB opportunity – you have the MLB option, now is the time to use it. But all reports are that Donovan will be traded eventually, and then the Cardinals REALLY need another outfielder.
There has been a decent amount of movement in the outfield market, but there are also many players the Cardinals could still sign. You may be wondering who is left. That’s what this post is for. A general overview of moderately desirable outfielders. It is a requirement that you are an outfielder though. Apologies to the dozens of fans clamoring for Eloy Jimenez, but he played a single game in the outfield in 2024 and just 14 in 2023. He was a horrendous fielder before that.
First, earlier this offseason, I wrote a post about former Cardinal players, who weirdly fit a niche of being guys that actually made sense for the Cardinals. At least in theory. Of those players, Adolis Garcia signed a 1 year, $10 million deal with the Phillies and Lane Thomas signed a 1 year, $5.25 million deal with the Royals. Tommy Pham, Randal Grichuk, and Harrison Bader are all still free agents. Bader will cost the most money, the other two probably not much.
Big Money
It remains to be seen whether Bader will fall under this category and also what my threshold is for big money. I don’t honestly know. These guys have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack and actually even lumping Bader in with this group is a very big favor to Bader. Bader, as I expressed in the earlier post, had a very high BABIP and a not particularly high xwOBA, so his offensive season looks very fluky. His defense is also not as good as it once was. But every MLB team knows this, and I doubt he’s looking at this great deal.
Both Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger are likely out of the Cardinals’ self-imposed budget. In Tucker’s case, that’s because the reported ask is $400 million, and it’s a little doubtful he’ll get that, but unless it’s as low as $200 million, and even then, I’m not sure the Cardinals are even calling him up. In Bellinger’s case, it’s because he’s frankly a very untrustworthy player to give an eight-figure contract to considered he collapsed as a hitter when he was 25. Doesn’t mean it’ll happen again, but I’m not betting $100+ million that it won’t.
The Cardinals are unlikely to tap into these waters
Platoon Lefty
You may be wondering why the Cardinals would sign a left-handed bat that can only hit right-handed pitching. A good question. This player would probably only sign here with a trade of Donovan, thus swapping a left-handed bat for a left-handed bat. If you were to keep Donovan, this certainly means Walker is heading to AAA, but also you have a left-handed bat at all three outfield spots, two of which do not have a platoon partner. Who platoons with this guy? Honestly, Jose Fermin. I don’t hate that arrangement. Between JJ Wetherholt, Thomas Saggese, and Nolan Gorman, starts at the infield position will be hard to come by – this is a way to get him starts.
Mike Tauchman, 35
Stats: 385 PAs, .263/.356/.400, 11.7 BB%, 22.3 K%, .137 ISO, .328 BABIP, 115 wRC+
Small caveat but not necessarily a negative: Tauchman has shown zero platoon splits in his career. Honestly, Tauchman makes a ton of sense. His one notable offensive talent is that he takes a lot of walks. He’s otherwise okay at the other parts with below average power. He is a decent defender. He will almost certainly sign a one-year deal. He is almost a player specifically designed to be a stopgap, giving you competent at-bats, decent defense and sorry Mike, very easy to push aside if you’re ready for a change.
Max Kepler, 33
Stats: 474 PAs, .216/.300/.391, 10.1 BB%, 19.6 K%, .175 ISO, .232 BABIP, 90 wRC+
Kepler is basically Lars Nootbaar at 33. Usually has nagging injuries that prevent him from playing the full season, has underlying statistics that suggest he should be better than he is, a reasonably good defender. Kepler is much worse against lefties though and is a true strong side of the platoon. If you sign him, you should have a specific plan of playing a right-handed batter when the Cardinals face a lefty in his place or you shouldn’t bother.
Will Brennan, 28
Stats: 866 PAs, .267/.307/.373, 4.4 BB%, 12.7 K%, .106 ISO, .294 BABIP, 90 wRC+
Those are Brennan’s career stats, because he only played in 6 games – 13 total plate appearances – last season. He had a 103 wRC+ in AAA – it was only in 35 games – so I think he was hurt most of the season. This is the kind of player a true rebuilding team signs. Let me take this longshot chance of a player who probably isn’t good, but isn’t that old and you never know. Brennan also has been an above average hitter against right-handed pitchers in his career (102 wRC+).
And hey maybe developmentally speaking, you can do something with this kind of hitter. Great at making contact, doesn’t make good enough contact to probably be this aggressive. Basically Alec Burleson with worse contact quality and no power. His career swing% is only lower than the most free swinging hitters you can think of (PCA, Salvador Perez, Michael Harris) and would have ranked 6th in baseball last year. Perhaps a “you don’t need to swing at everything” approach could slightly improve his results.
Perhaps not deserving of one, but I wrote a whole profile on Michael Conforto early in the offseason.
Right-Handed Bat
Miguel Andujar, 31
Stats: 341 PAs, .318/.352/.470, 5 BB%, 14.4 K%, .153 ISO, .348 BABIP, 125 wRC+
There is one big problem with Andujar’s results last year: his xwOBA was a lot, lot worse. Basically, he had a high BABIP, but doesn’t seemed to have deserved it in the slightest. His .296 xwOBA is in line with his career .298 xwOBA. His .348 BABIP was not in line with his career mark of .308. Also, he played in what I’m pretty sure is the very hitter friendly Sutter Health Park, otherwise known as a minor league stadium being used by the Athletics. He also played in the definitely good for hitters’ park Great American Smallpark. In addition, he can’t play defense anywhere. He does play defense at several positions, but all of them poorly.
Austin Hays, 30
Stats: 416 PAs, .266/.315/.453, 7 BB%, 25.7 K%, .187 ISO, .326 BABIP, 105 wRC+
The downside to Hays is that he’s not a very good player against right-handed pitchers, with a career 97 wRC+ and not particularly adding anything on defense. But against lefties, he comes alive. He has a career 124 wRC+ against southpaws, can at least stand at any of the three positions. And while he’s not great against right-handed pitchers, he’s not unplayable either. To get him to come here, you probably have to make a reasonable argument that he will play more or less everyday. Which the Cardinals are arguably in the position to do.
Starling Marte, 37
Stats: 329 PAs, .270/.335/.410, 6.7 BB%, 20.7 K%, .140 ISO, .318 BABIP, 112 wRC+
Marte is at the stage of his career where his defense may be bad enough that he’s more of a DH. Marte has actually been a little better against RHP in his career interestingly. He’s most recently been more of a right fielder, but not a very good one and he was bad enough in 2024 that he played DH nearly exclusively last season. I’d be interested to know if he’d fare better in LF, where he played the majority of his career. Obviously, if I’m signing Marte, I’m hoping for the best in the field cause I don’t want him as a DH.
Mark Canha, 37
Stats: 125 PAs, .212/.272/.265, 5.6 BB%, 19.2 K%, .053 ISO, .256 BABIP, 49 wRC+
Well, it goes without saying that you don’t sign Mark Canha based on his 2025. Canha got DFA’d in August, but was injured twice during the season. He did hit in his rehab games, so there’s that. But he’s another player without much of a platoon which is something of a negative here because that just means he’s below average against everyone. He did have a 101 wRC+ in 2024, his seventh straight season as an above average hitter. We’d almost certainly see him get hit by a pitch – he has 141 for his career.
Austin Slater, 33
Stats: .216/.270/.372, 6.9 BB%, 31.9 K%, .155 ISO, .293 BABIP, 78 wRC+
Slater is the rare right-handed batter in baseball entirely because of his ability to hit left-handed batters. He can’t hit right-handed batters whatsoever, with a career 80 wRC+. Against lefties though, he has a career 119 wRC+. Last year, he managed a 100 wRC+, although because he’s on the decline, he may no longer be the specialist he once was. He’s fine on defense, but nothing special.
Tommy Pham and Randal Grichuk are two others who belong in this category. I’ll again link you to a previous article if you’re interested in more words about them. Two other “outfielders” who I ignored were Jesse Winker and Hunter Renfroe. Winker is a known clubhouse problem and can’t play the outfield. Renfroe can’t play the outfield either. I consider them more DHs than outfielders, so they’re not even on my list.
