Kolten Wong could be on the move after voicing his displeasure at the Cardinals for platooning him.
The St. Louis Cardinals are a team who pride themselves in consistency and teamwork. They’ve contended for years despite not having many huge stars. Outside of Albert Pujols, the Cardinals haven’t had any generational talents over the past 20 years. It’s worked well for them, but it requires everyone to buy into the role. Kolten Wong isn’t too happy about his role.
"“I just feel like, you know, my time here, it’s almost limited,” he said, via ESPN. “So, we will see what happens. I don’t know what’s going on. No one has told me anything.”"
Wong’s rant didn’t go over too well in the front office.
"“Overall, we’ve had a very positive camp, and I certainly don’t want someone’s comments to bring us down,” said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak."
Wong has been fairly disappointing so far in his MLB career. While he is a very good defensive second baseman, his bat hasn’t really developed. With the Cardinals having options at second base who can hit noticeably better than him, Wong has seen his playing time slip. In 2015, he had 613 plate appearances in 150 games as their primary starter. However, in 2016, Wong played in just 121 games with 361 plate appearances.
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His on base percentage has been steadily improving, reaching a career high .329 in 2016. However, Wong has a career .370 slugging percentage and a .248 career batting average. Jedd Gyorko has been great at the plate and hasn’t been much of a drop off at second base. Greg Garcia has shown a lot of promise as well, notching a .399 on-base percentage last season in 257 plate appearances. Wong could be the odd man out. However, considering his career numbers, it could be hard to move him.