A day after DeJong was scratched from the lineup because of back pain, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol revealed that the shortstop will be sidelined for a few days with discomfort that prevents him from bending over to field grounders. Eligibility restrictions apply. Hes going to get some work at shortstop pregame. Across a span of eight games to open May, DeJong went 3-for-26. The result was a league-average player with improving defense. Tommys having an incredible season for us right now at second, Mozeliak said. Thats Paul DeJong. Copyright 2023 Sporting News Holdings Limited. FRANKIE MONTAS TRADE GRADES: How did Yanks, A's fare? Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. MORE:Cardinals bolster pitching staff in deadline deal with Pirates for Quintana. Check back in at stltoday.comthroughout the afternoon and evening for coverage of the game. YANKEES-CARDINALS TRADE DETAILS: New York lands OF Bader for SP Montgomery. In 16 games that month for the Redbirds his first extended time in the minors since 2017 he hit two home runs and had a .634 OPS. Could Paul DeJong provide a 94 wRC+ or better against primarily right-handed pitchers while giving Edman time off to stay fresh defensively? Yeah, it's not ideal, Marmol said after the Cards' 4-1 win over the Mets on Wednesday. Infielder who was a fourth round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2015 MLB Draft. After a fun week of reminiscence, thats exactly what happened. Cardinals latest, deflating loss compounds concerns, Man shot, killed near Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis, What was Andrew Knizner thinking? But we passed exciting up a long time ago. He went three for four with a homer and no Ks. DeJongs LD% in AAA this season was over 40%. Those realities hid trouble coming. At least not very often. Thats why taking the time to start becoming comfortable with a possible transition now is so imperative. I thought hitting was good, but I wasn't in a flex spine position now I know I pushed it a little too far, so I need to back off.. Dodgers third. Heres how Mozeliak and manager Oli Marmol answered: When the Cardinals embarked for Kansas City and San Francisco last week, there was already a heavy sense of pressure mounting on DeJong, who posted a mere .247 on-base percentage through the month of April. Thats pretty good for a 23-year-old shortstop. St. Louis Cardinals' Paul DeJong (11) and Lars Nootbaar (21) celebrate a 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees following of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 5, 2022, in St. Louis. Its a small sample size, of course, but its an encouraging start since it is something he struggled with in the minors. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Its about sticking with things moment to moment. I would argue that outside of his often-cited, never duplicated rookie season, his former production levels arent all that exciting. This league is hard up here, and hell be tested. Paul DeJong's age is 29. It became pretty clear that the club had soured on moving him. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. How will the Cardinals cover shortstop? Hes struck out just 11. Its a lot of F-dash-fill in the blank, Marmol said, referring to the scoring of the abundance of lazy flyouts that have resulted lately off DeJongs bat. In the minors. The change in his batted ball data is your muse. Keep up with the latest trending news in sports with our daily newsletter. His flyball rate was 36.4%. He had an unsustainable .349 BABIP, a well-below average 4.7% walk rate, and a 28% strikeout rate in 17. Depending on the quality of that player, the Cardinals would have at best broken even and likely would have had to add payroll to make the trade and cover their butts positionally. He had clubbed just three doubles and one home run. But it would make this club better. The righty is expected to throw around 75 pitches in the outing. I'm not reinventing my pitches, or trying to change anything drastically with my arsenal. ", In July, Holmes made his first All-Star team. Open their stance. DeJong, meanwhile, was tasked with getting his career back on track in the minors. Im sorry this has happened. The past did not dictate the present. THE COLD WIRE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF COLD WIRE MEDIA. DeJong had missed the last few games due to lower back tightness but was targeting a return to game action by Tuesday. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in the position of shortstop and was drafted in the 2015 MLB Draft in the fourth round. But as has been the case for much of the past three seasons with DeJong, little has gone perfectly for the onetime All-Star shortstop. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. What DeJong has been most of the season was not what he was Friday night. And even if he does, its possible that he has played his last game in a Cardinals uniform. Winn, Wednesdays starter, is batting .276 with an .870 OPS this spring. His absence should enhance the opportunity for several players battling for the final bench spot, potentially creating a path to the Opening Day roster for outfielders Alec Burleson and Juan Yepez or utility man Taylor Motter. I know it's a long season, so I'm just going to do what I got to do each day, and eventually it'll be good enough to be out there on the field again and show what I can do.. Use it to create a different version of DeJong whose simplified approach to getting the bat to the ball could lead him to more balls in play in good places and a more sustainable offensive model. Putting the ask on him midstream, I think its something that we want to be cognizant of and give him the best chance of success and just doing it as a knee-jerk reaction. He was never very good at recognizing and driving non-fastballs. Motter has had an impressive spring hes posted an .804 OPS with three home runs in 18 spring games while playing virtually around the diamond and the Cardinals do have an open spot on their 40-man roster. Paul DeJong was one of three St. Louis Cardinals players who began the 2023 season on the injured list. However, DeJong may be close to making his way back. DeJong's best offensive year is still his 2017 rookie season, as he finished second in NL Rookie Of The Year voting, and the Cards locked him up with a six-year, $26MM contract extension. Weve seen BABIP-fueled power surges from him before. Paul DeJong was at bat for the home club. I think the Milwaukee Brewers' offense is starting to show signs of life after finishing April ranked 17th in OPS (.673) and 19th in wRC+ (95). ST. LOUIS In a move that was sensible but nevertheless surprising, the Cardinals optioned former All-Star shortstop Paul DeJong to Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday, citing a need for the 28-year-old to reset amidst another abysmal offensive stretch to open the season. So whats next for DeJong? He spent most of the offseason at the Cards' Florida complex reworking his swing, then he hit .154 with one homer and six walks across 19 plate appearances in Grapefruit League play. In order for Gorman to be used effectively, he would need to also see ample reps at second base, a position he has played professionally for just over a year. I guess in the back of my mind, I felt like I wasn't fully there, DeJong said. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. "I'm just really happy to be back here and contributing the way that I am.". The Cardinals are 3-6 through their first nine games. Long story short, the Cardinals decided early in the offseason that they wanted DeJong to make the team. He went 8 for 9 in save opportunities. We feel pretty good about what Tommys doing at second at the moment, but (shortstop) is not out of the question.. And Paul Dejong has been what hes been for a while now. The St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong has finally made his debut in the 2023 MLB season and it did not take him much time before making his presence felt on offense. As for DeJong, it could be next week before he returns. I cant do normal things right now, so it's definitely not playable. I can't touch my toes. This was dubbed a critical spring for DeJong, coming off a season in which the 2019 All-Star hit .157 and spent more than two months at Triple-A Memphis. He emerged from those sessions with a more balanced swing, newly confident that he could get back to being the player who smashed 74 home runs from 2017-19, finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting in '17 and played in the All-Star Game in '19. DeJong, 28, has a murky future with the Cardinals after the season. He has 813 plate appearances of 77 wRC+ this decade. Despite his immediate impact on the Cardinals, its probably going to take some more time before he finds a solid role on the team, according to Cardinals outfielder Katie Woo. Sosa recorded two hits in a rehab assignment for Double-A Springfield on Tuesday and will be in the lineup once more on Wednesday. When he's not writing sports articles, you can find him playing MLB The Show, watching Cardinals games, and scrolling through Star Wars memes. The veteran infielder has recorded multiple hits in three of his five games this season and is slashing .471/.471/.941 through 21 plate appearances. Its probably a combination of all three. I thought I was ready to take ground balls today and flared it back up, DeJong said. But his offense was 20 percentage points below where he started. In AAA, his combined fly ball and infield fly ball rate was 65%. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. DeJong, 29, will look to bounce back from a brutal 2022 season that saw him slash just .157/.245/.286 in 77 games that culminated in him getting optioned to Triple-A, where he spent 51 games in 2022. Practically giddy over what they hoped they had developed, the Cardinals inked DeJong to a regrettable arbitration buy-out deal. DeJong went 3-for-4 with a home run against the Seattle Mariners on Monday in his first game back from a back injury to help the Cardinals score a 7-3 victory on the road. DeJong had begun spring training on a good note after reworking his swing in the offseason. The Cardinals do not believe that DeJong's back injury is serious, but it is another setback. In June, Holmes allowed one earned run and three walks and struck out 12 in 12 innings. The Cardinals activated shortstop Paul DeJong on Sunday ahead of their road series finale against the Mariners. He had been scheduled to return to action Tuesday, before experiencing the setback Monday morning trying to backhand a ground ball and simulate his throwing motion. Paul DeJong steps into opportunity he might have 'dreaded' before and delivers big hit for Cardinals vs. Yankees, Four candidates to be this October's Jorge Soler/Eddie Rosario-type playoff hero, Aaron Judge pushes ahead of Yankees legends with torrid home run pace heading into August, New York lands OF Bader for SP Montgomery, Cardinals bolster pitching staff in deadline deal with Pirates for Quintana. This game is about production, Mozeliak said. His fast start in his return from the minors is reminiscent of 2022 when, following a nearly three-month-long demotion due to poor performance, DeJong cranked homers in consecutive days and went on a two-week bender (.646 slugging% and a 182 wRC+) before falling back into his old habits. The Yankees led 3-2. Maybe they had a plan to fix him? During his rehab assignment, Paul DeJong (back) batted .302 and produced a .900 OPS in 12 games between Class Low-A and Class AAA. And from a performance standpoint, hes been playing every day and responding well.. He was optioned to Triple A last May after hitting .130 over the first 24 games of the year. The hope is that the move to Triple A will alleviate some of the pressure that had been accumulating since late last season, when DeJong lost his starting job to Edmundo Sosa. That season he managed a .194 IS0 but a wRC+ of just 85. Paul DeJong #11 of the St. Louis Cardinals up to bat against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on April 16, 2022 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I do think other teams had some interest; he could have been moved. But when you think about whats best for him, whats best for the organization and really this club right now, we found it was going to be difficult to get him at-bats and get right while were trying to win games at the major-league level. I think that theres, fundamentally, things that are different, Mozeliak said, referencing defensive positioning on shifts and longer throws across the diamond. Then we want him to get into a routine that hes comfortable and that he believes in.. The most important thing is just getting a routine and playing again, not having to look over your shoulder, Mozeliak said. Heres what you need to know: Its been a disappointing spring for DeJong, 29, who entered camp this season on the final year of his six-year, $26 million contract. From 20-22, DeJongs whiffs rose. The Cardinals couldnt justify waiting any longer. (Photo: Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images). His ERA at the end of April was a sparkling 0.84. In his return to the lineup, DeJong will hit ahead of rookie Jordan Walker, who got a day off on Saturday and is batting .271 with 11 RBIs in 19 games to start his MLB career. Once he cools off, hell settle right back in as the same hitter he was before and thats not a major league player, regardless of his defense.
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