3 St. Louis Cardinals failing young stars they should have traded away
By Mark Powell
Cardinals should have traded Paul DeJong
Oh, Paul DeJong, what happened to you?
In 2019, DeJong made the NL All-Star team, and was one of the better young shortstops in all of baseball. It was thought DeJong would be a pillar on the next great Cards team. Oh, how wrong we were.
Had the Cardinals dealt DeJong away then and there, they could have received a kings ransom in prospects, or better yet some young pitching to help their ailing pitching staff. This team wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on the likes of Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright, who is over 40 years old and injured. Instead, DeJong is a popular trade target this season should St. Louis be sellers at the deadline, if only because he’s dead weight.
Coming off two straight seasons hitting under the Mendoza line, DeJong has put together a nice start for himself, slashing .346/.370/.654 in only 27 at-bats. RedBird Rants assumes he’ll be a popular trade target if the time comes when St. Louis will offload talent.
"“DeJong’s contract has two club options following the 2023 season at $12 million and $15 million each, so teams could take on DeJong for the stretch run as a quality shortstop or backup infielder for their roster, and if he plays well enough, they could decide to bring him back on those options. If not, they let him hit free agency and it’s no skin off their back.”"
The club options are a nice touch, and would have made DeJong far more valuable when he was actually contributing at a consistent clip.