[oldandslow]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's really the problem with the Cardinals.

They don't need anymore 'pretty good'. What they needed was a fiery corner OFer with power and OBP skills. They needed Bryce !@#$ing Harper.

What they got was...not that.

But I think if they decided to make a splash (they won't), the guy they should chase would be Trae Turner. Turner's on-base skills and power/speed combo make him the ideal top of the order hitter they haven't had ahead of Goldschmidt and Arenado.

And if Winn is as advertised, you always have the option of putting him or Edman in the OF, where both could excel. It's not like they have a legit long-term CFer anyway.

But Mozeliak's team building philosophy of just stacking the system with decent players has led to this glut of 'meh' guys. Walker may be breaking through that mold, but it's just jammed full of otherwise solid but unspectacular ballplayers.

Brendan Donovan is as pretty much the living embodiment of the Cardinals draft approach right now.

I mean you could honestly look at this roster with the 'but X' lense and say they don't need anything. Well TON got MVP votes two seasons ago, can't block him. Walker's probably headed to RF sooner rather than later, can't block him. We wouldn't include Carlson in a deal for Soto so clearly he's the CF of the future. Arenado and Goldy at the corners, Edman and Donovan, two gold glove winners, up the middle. Shit, you could even say the same nonsense about the starting rotation "well we have Matz coming back, Mikolas under contract, Flaherty is due to return to form, Montgomery is back next season as is Wainwright, Hudson won 15 games not long ago, we don't want to block Liberatore, Hence or Graceffo. Thompson looked great in his cup of coffee last year..."

So you go into the offseason with that mindset and you end up with a C, a middle reliever and a bench bat.

Any team - literally every single one - that looks for a reason not to do something, can find a reason not to do something.

Meanwhile the Cardinals were a team that played .500 ball outside of the NL Central last season and won't get that unbalanced schedule to save their asses going forward.

If there is a premium player interested in playing for them - sign him and worry about the rest later. This team isn't as good as the BFIB think it is and won't be in the coming years either.

Who is Trae Turner is the answer to the jeopardy question. IMO opinion, Turner and a Catcher is what should happen.