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The St. Louis Cardinals have run away with the National League Central since the 2022 MLB trade deadline. The Cardinals had a strong deadline, while their top competitor, the Milwaukee Brewers, did not. The results have been hard to miss since.
With a 7.5 game lead over the Brewers and just over a month left to go in the 2022 regular season, the Cardinals are well on their way to locking up the division. Once they do that, their next focus will be on partaking in a lengthy playoff run, with the ultimate goal still being to walk away with a World Series championship.
However, in order to do that, the Cardinals have some flaws that need fixing. One in particular could end up destroying St. Louis' hopes of a deep playoff run. So let's take a look at that potentially fatal flaw and see what could be done to fix it before the postseason arrives.
The fatal flaw the Cardinals need to address
Paul DeJong and the shortstop position
Shortstop has been the Cardinals biggest weakness all season long. Paul DeJong struggled mightily out of the gate, and was sent to Triple-A to figure things out in May. Edmundo Sosa filled in for the next couple of months, but wasn't much better, and ended up getting shipped to the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline.
Sosa was deemed expendable because DeJong appeared to have finally figured things out during his time in Triple-A. DeJong was recalled right after Sosa was traded, and has been the primary guy playing shortstop ever since. The results, unfortunately, haven't been much different, as DeJong has continued to struggle.
DeJong was hitting a paltry .130 when he was sent to the minors, so in a way, his current batting average of .160 is a bit better. Still, DeJong has been pretty much unplayable given his inability to get on base all season long. He's getting pretty consistent playing time despite hitting below .200 pretty much all season long.
At this stage in the season, it's clear that DeJong cannot be counted on for any sort of consistent production. He hasn't hit all season long, and hasn't shown any signs of turning things around. He was OK after initially returning from the minors, and saw his batting average go all the way up to .198. But DeJong has gone just 2/42 (good for a hideous .048 batting average) since then.
DeJong cannot be in the lineup everyday anymore, that much is clear. But since the Cardinals dealt away Sosa at the deadline, they don't have a straight up replacement for DeJong at shortstop. They could, however, do some maneuvering to their middle infield to solve this issue.
The easiest solution to this problem is Tommy Edman. Edman is the Cardinals versatile starting second baseman who can play all over the field. Among the positions where Edman can slot in is shortstop, which he has done 61 times this season. Edman could easily slide over to shortstop to get DeJong out of the lineup.
That obviously leaves an open spot at second base, but that could be filled by Nolan Gorman, who entered the season as one of the top prospects in the entire MLB. Gorman has struggled at times in his first exposure to the majors, but his statline (.233 BA, 13 HR, 33 RBI, .734 OPS) is far better than DeJong's.
Edman is a strong fielder, so the move away from his favored second base isn't the worst thing to ever happen. Gorman has really only played second base throughout his career, and considering Edman's reliability, there's no sense trying to teach Gorman a new position when you have Edman at your disposal.
This move would strengthen the Cardinals starting lineup, although it may make their overall fielding a bit worse than it would be with DeJong in the lineup. Gorman already has eight errors this season despite only playing in 60 games, whereas DeJong only has five in 54 games. Moving Edman to shortstop could also result in some more mistakes on his end, although that probably won't be the case.
Overall, this fix makes the most sense, simply because the Cardinals cannot afford to field an eight-man lineup, which is what they are doing when they pencil DeJong's name on the lineup card every night he plays. In order to win in the postseason, you need to have a deep lineup one through nine.
Right now, the Cardinals cannot say they have that when DeJong plays. Gorman isn't the greatest upgrade over DeJong, but considering how bad DeJong has been this season, any improvement would help the Cardinals out greatly.
