3 Cardinals players who won’t be on the roster by September 1
By Tim Boyle
2) Cardinals haven’t gotten much from Paul DeJong in his return
Paul DeJong began the season as the Cardinals shortstop. After heading down to the farm, he’s now back but not winning over the faith of the fans.
DeJong is a power-hitting shortstop who first began to gain favor with the fans as a rookie in 2017. He was the runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting in a season where he hit 25 home runs in only 443 trips to the plate. He did this while batting .285, too.
The power hasn’t disappeared but the batting average has. DeJong has not hit higher than .250 in any season since. Last year, he batted just .197 and will probably finish the season somewhere around that mark again in 2022.
The Cardinals were able to move Tommy Edman over to shortstop during his time in the minors. Although the Cardinals may prefer to just ride it out and move him to the bench if he continues to struggle, they should keep their options open.
St. Louis didn’t upgrade the offense at the trade deadline when they could have possibly aimed to find a shortstop or another infielder to help them. But because they have already demoted DeJong once this season, we shouldn’t put it past them to send him back to the minors again.