St. Louis Cardinals rookie third baseman David Freese should be in the spotlight, having been presented with the very best opportunity of his young career on a silver platter – to make his long-awaited big league debut while assuming the temporary starter’s role at the hot corner.
Now the St. Louisan is in the news all right, but it is for the wrong reason.
Instead of speeding ahead to seize Troy Glaus’ job, who is recovering from January 21 shoulder surgery, Freese is stuck in neutral while trying to rehab an injury himself. While we were previously told of his left Achilles tendon soreness, its origin was not disclosed until Wednesday.
The soon-to-be 26-year-old totaled his automobile in a one-car crash on January 10 and his left foot was twisted in the accident, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Freese informed the club through his agent two days later and has been under team medical care since.
Yet all parties chose to keep the matter quiet until Wednesday, adding another example to a growing list of situations in which the delivery timing of Cardinals medical information raises additional unnecessary questions. This most recently includes Glaus’ condition, sidestepped at the mid-January Winter Warm-Up fan festival, only for surprise surgery to be announced via press release a few days later.
After coming over to the Cardinals from San Diego in the Jim Edmonds trade in December 2007, Freese put together a 2008 season so solid with Triple-A Memphis that we named him our Scout.com Memphis Player of the Year and the Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year for the entire system. The right-handed hitter posted a .306/.361/.550 line with 26 home runs and 91 RBIs for the Pacific Coast League Redbirds.
Before Glaus’ injury, spring training non-roster invitee Freese seemed poised to be in the mix for a reserve job behind Glaus with the Cardinals or perhaps return to Memphis for a second Triple-A season.
While apparently able to swing a bat, Freese’s inability to play in the field to date has opened the door for Joe Mather to receive valuable starts at third base early in camp and perhaps establish a foothold to instead become the interim replacement for Glaus himself.
Freese estimates his full return will be in matter of days, but GM John Mozeliak and manager Tony La Russa more ominously label the situation as “open-ended”, according to the paper.
Most ironically, Glaus used a very similar term this past week when describing the timing of his expected return, originally quoted at four to six weeks. The 32-year-old is still unable to begin baseball-related activities. My medical expert suggests it may be longer before Glaus is back, especially before his power returns.
What should have been good news for Freese isn’t. Instead of being a player on top of the world right now, he finds himself on top of the trainer’s table.
It would be swell if Mather worked out at 3B. Though for perspective, the Cards made a conscious choice to move him off of 3B 7 years ago. Keeping him at 3B would arguably have maximized his value in baseball terms, so one would have thought the Cards viewed him as ill-suited to defending the position. Maybe this was mistaken and can now be corrected. In any event, we will find out. Craig, Wallace, and Barden could also get opportunity to show what they can do.
Fate can deal some odd cards. The Cards looked uncommonly deep with Glaus and Freese. Now what?
I have not forgotten a conversation I had with TLR in camp last spring. I asked him point blank if he was going to give Mather a look at third base in MLB games last March. He gave me that look of his that you often see in the post-game interviews and curtly replied, “Not here”.
Sadly, it wasn’t at Memphis either. In hindsight, it seems to me they should have used Mather to give Freese a breather last season to start to build his 3B skills over a longer period. Under the pressure of a major league spring camp is a very tough time to attempt a position change.
Clearly, Mather at third base wasn’t on the radar screen until now, but why wasn’t it? Everyone has known for some time that Mather’s best shot to remain a major leaguer over the long haul is to develop into a John Mabry-type corner infield-outfield player. Mather offers the additional versatility to be able to handle center field as well. Second base for him seems an even longer shot idea than third. I hope they stay away from that as there are many better options at second.
To his benefit, TLR is clearly sending Mather a signal by giving him uniform number 7 that he shouldn’t worry about his spot on the roster, much like when he announced Skip is on the team and is his leadoff man no matter what happens at second base.
While nice gestures, they don’t change the fact that these two players, Mather and Schumaker, have a very big challenge this spring. I hope they can do it, but trying alone may not be enough. As you note Jumbo, there had better be a “Plan B” and even “Plan C” ready.
To look via rose hued specs, the Cards have a history of creating instant 3Bmen (Shannon, Torre, Zeile). Pujols played SS as an amateur and just one year at 3B in the minors, before becoming an everyday 3Bman in the majors. It can be done.
Joe Mather’s ticket of entry to the majors seems his bat. His general athleticism enables some position flexibility like Mabry or Spiezio. This seems an additional virtue that Joe offers. But his raison d’etre seems slugging.
The Mather history in the Cards minor league system is a strange saga and not one that the Cards want to repeat. They brought a premium athlete along too slowly. I doubt the wisdom of moving Mather off 3B after just two half seasons there. I more question a decision in 2003 than a foregone one in 2008.
TLR is a smart guy. He can flexibly work with how things unfold. So it seems like he will give a serious look at Schumacker and Mather, even though TLR knows success cannot be assumed. He will have some fallback options at 3B and there are a bunch: Craig, Wallace, Barden, even T. Greene (though its best for the Cards Greene continue at Memphis).
In 2005, the Cards made the playoffs with Abe Nunez at 3B, a light hitter. TLR values defense. Even if Craig, Wallace, Mather, or we hope a healthy Freese gets the starting job, Barden has got to be roster lock as a backup.
I’m not buying this as some kind of botched P.R. effort. It’s a minor injury that happened in January and has been aggravated since Spring Training started. Maybe the fans didn’t know about it, but the front office did. I’m not sure what they should say about it; it’s not like Freese’s last name is Pujols. And it’s obvious TLR has a pretty good idea what he’s dealing with. I’m just going to file it under “Blessing in Disguise” and hope that Mather can stick at third, and that the Cardinals field a six-outfielder team with only one of them sitting on the bench. Gee, kind of make you think. Maybe they could field a seven-outfielder team with Brian Barton and Chris Duncan as the “outfield” bench and Skip Schumaker and Mather as infielders.
LOL! I suspect La Russa would rather have seven middle infielders, who can all play the outfield, of course!
On the other point, the gap between invasion of privacy and “need to know” is not always clear.
You know, it occurs to me that I miscounted, since Chris Duncan is technically a first baseman playing very deep and out of position…like 180 feet out of position.
redc,
if tlr intent is to carry his 13 best bats, he will most likely have to choose to carry one middle u.i. and not two.
i have trouble finding one middle u.i. that can outproduce any one of freese, mather, rasmus, duncan or barton….much less two.
the only wild card for me is thurston, based on a lack of exposure to him. but i do not expect two of ryan, barden, t. greene, thurston or hoffauir to outproduce any of the group above. if they all have options except ryan, they are just a phone call away.
if thurston forces his way on the 25 man, and the org wants to give ryan another look before the dfa waiver wire if necessary, i can then see two middle infield u.i.’s.
can’t find another scenario though, based solely on production.
B in P–
I think Tyler Greene may be for real. He hit pretty well today. Oquendo has been high on him, and Mo thought enough to send him to Winter Ball. He is pretty young, though.
Brendan Ryan is probably the best all-around defender of the whole group, but he’s not showing much yet and has an injury. Thurston is a huge question mark right now. You just can’t tell. But I think Hoffpauir is pretty much a goner, and Allen Craig is probably on his way back to Memphis. I’m on board with carrying seven outfielders, so long as two of them can play infield other than first base.
RedC….over at the Birdhouse, some locals think T. Greene is “too old.” He was a little old for a college junior, when he was drafted, and has been slowed for a year by knee injury. For perspective, roughly a third of the lads on the 40 man roster were “too old” when they reached the majors.
In any event, its refreshing to hear someone say Greene is pretty young. I think he profiles acceptably to playing in the majors, but could use 400 more at bats at Memphis first.
bip, if you have the impression that Ryan is out of options from an off the top of my head remark I made recently, that is incorrect. I went back and checked and he still has one remaining. I posted the correction on the other thread, but it was a week or so ago. Thurston is the only one of the MIFs with no options and one outright. So if he is added to the 25-man, he will need to stay there or could walk.
If you’re a Scout subscriber, I went into considerable detail about this yesterday: “Projected Cardinals 2009 Opening Day Roster”.
thanks for the update on ryan and thurston. if tlr carries just one middle infield u.i., he will have to be ss friendly.
since barden, t. greene and ryan all have options, it could lead to a revolving door, calling up the hot hand when necessary.
As I posted on Scout.com earlier in the evening, Freese was a surprise inclusion among the first 15 players reassigned to minor league camp. Brett Wallace is the other big name, but he was expected…
Assignment of Freese suggests he needs to focus on restoring health.