The former All-Star shortstop is currently on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Memphis. That said, its hard to see another team taking on his contract considering his extensive struggles in the majors, and that would mean that DeJong being DFAd is the most likely scenario, barring him bouncing back in a big way and Gorman struggling in the majors. (, Cardinals send prized prospect Jordan Walker to Class AAA in curious series of moves, Rudderless ship of chaos: St. Louis judge advances Kim Gardner contempt case, What Oliver Marmols gamble in ninth vs. LA reveals about managing to spark Cardinals, How sending Jordan Walker to Class AAA is a bet clarity can correct muddled outfield: Cardinals Extra, Messenger: Kim Gardner drives the judicial bus over her employees and into the ditch, A closer on ice. From 20-22, DeJongs whiffs rose. Willing to give DeJong another chance? Tommy Edman has a 94 career wRC+ against right-handed pitchers as a lefty batter. Maybe they just really like a very likable player that theyve worked with for a decade and wanted to give him another chance? When the St. Louis Cardinals optioned Paul DeJong to Triple-A Memphis, the domino effect immediately followed. As a corresponding move, the club selected infielder Kramer Robertson from Memphis, and he reported to Busch Stadium ahead of the Cardinals matchup against the visiting Orioles. 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. He gave up eight runs in 2 1/3 innings to the Cubs on April 11 and allowed four runs across six innings against the Brewers on April 17. You would be hard-pressed to find two players following more divergent paths in the 2022 season. Open their stance. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. "I'm just really happy to be back here and contributing the way that I am.". Tired of DeJong? And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards. 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. This is a truth proven over and over again on a nightly basis, of course, in ways both subtle and obvious. Five things I think: 1. I would argue that outside of his often-cited, never duplicated rookie season, his former production levels arent all that exciting. CHICAGO -- The ever-sturdy, ever-reliable Paul DeJong has been such a constant in Cardinals lineups since he debuted in 2017 that the club has stressed the need to simply find their shortstop a breather over the course of this campaign and those of the past. "Tough inning. DeJong, meanwhile, has been better in Triple-A, but is still struggling as hes hitting only .189/.244/.243 with a .487 OPS in 41 plate appearances. After struggling mightily immediately after his demotion, DeJong seems to have . Others want to believe he can get back to his All-Star self. Follow Katie on Twitter @katiejwoo, Cardinals optioned former All-Star shortstop. Since hes been here, hes put together quality at-bats. Edman played shortstop in college and in the minor leagues and is comfortable either way., He is confident in his ability to play short, Marmol said. 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. Hes hitting better now. Infielder who was a fourth round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2015 MLB Draft. Freddie Freeman . In June, Holmes allowed one earned run and three walks and struck out 12 in 12 innings. He and Tommy Edman were also taking reps at shortstop before batting practice. If were being very honest, an 85-100 wRC+ player with some power and quality defense is about as good as we were going to get for a backup SS position. A World Series winner as a player and the big, booming voice of summer as a broadcaster, St. Louis native spent more than 50 years as a champi, Walker was not in the internal lineup Wednesday for a third consecutive day, and the reason: He's being demoted to Class AAA. In the minors. Paul DeJong is back. Pauly's feeling better, but he'll be sidelined for a few days as [his lower back] mainly hurts when he's bending over for ground balls, but rotation -- as far as his swing -- not so much, Marmol said. He is then expected to advance through light throwing. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in the position of shortstop and was drafted in the 2015 MLB Draft in the fourth round. DeJong spent most of the offseason reworking his approach at the plate, opting for a minimal-stride stance that allows him to be better balanced and on time for pitches. I mean, we knew that once we were going to explore other options at short, that this wasnt a move where you just play the other guy and Paul sits on the bench. Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong fouls a ball off his left foot while taking batting practice on Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, at the club's spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. (CT) at T-Mobile Park. Lets look at his AAA season to see if we can find a glimmer of hope in his tiny sample size of 40 plate appearances. Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. 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. DeJong slugged .390 in 2021, compared with .286 this . We can talk about hard-hitting balls, hard contact, but you guys can look at the numbers just like we can, and hes just not getting it done in that standpoint. 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). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). 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. I think that theres, fundamentally, things that are different, Mozeliak said, referencing defensive positioning on shifts and longer throws across the diamond. That certainly didnt base that decision on performance. 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. Despite the All-Star appearance, and the 30-homer season. Undoubtedly, DeJong's 2018 and 2019 seasons with the club were his best. To create space for DeJong on the 26-man roster, Taylor Motter was designated for assignment. A native of Orlando, Florida, DeJong attended and played college baseball at Illinois State University (ISU). 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. Paul DeJong out with back pain, still looking to rebound - MLB Seeing fewer of them in the zone and doing less with the ones he saw by focusing on fly balls caused his production to collapse. Paul DeJong steps into opportunity he might have 'dreaded' before and What will happen when he starts seeing even more breaking and offspeed pitches than in the past? A random home run in a AAA game is not normally a noteworthy event. Then, when Sosa was moved, DeJong returned to the majors to give it another go. What to do about Paul DeJong - Viva El Birdos Im sorry this has happened. His breaking and offspeed rates soared. He would learn to walk more topping out at 9.8% in 20. DeJong, 29, almost certainly would have gotten those at-bats -- and would have fielded the four groundouts to shortstop over the games first four innings. Physically he stated he had been feeling good, really since he got to Memphis. Tommy Edman will be the clubs starting shortstop this season, and while the Cardinals have a plethora of versatile infielders, DeJong was the most serviceable option at shortstop behind Edman. last time Flaherty took the mound for the Cardinals, he threw a season-high six innings and allowed a season-high four runs on four hits against Arizona on April 17. An All-Star as recently as 2019, DeJong has had a disastrous start to the year, batting an anemic .130 with 25 strikeouts in 86 plate appearances. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Eligibility restrictions apply. DeJongs 20-day rehab stint was set to expire on Tuesday, but the team felt comfortable promoting him earlier because of his improved health and the groove he has been in at the plate. He gave up an earned run in the sixth inning on Opening Day, and six of his first nine appearances on the season were before the eighth inning. He is then expected to advance through light throwing. Baseball, the sport of 162 games and six months and enough time for ebbs and flows that other sports dont allow, presented an opportunity for DeJong on Friday, and he seized the moment. dark. If Woodfords performance is any indication, it shouldn't be him. The Cardinals are 3-6 through their first nine games. His rookie-season production over a relatively small sample size hid disturbing flaws. The hope is that DeJong can hit the reset button in multiple facets of his game; one being from a production standpoint and the other stemming from changing his mentality. The veteran shortstop rejoined the team on its taxi squad Friday in the nation's capital, following a 2 1/2-month demotion to Triple-A Memphis. When DeJong struggled mightily to open last season, the Cardinals sent him to Triple-A and shifted Edman -- a Gold Glove winner at second in 2021 -- to short. We can divide DeJongs 2022 season into five very unequal sections: April 7 May 8: .130/.209/.208, with a 29.1% K rate, 8.1% BB rate, and a 24 wRC+, May 9 July 29 in AAA: .249/.313/.552, with a 22.6% K rate, 8.7% BB rate, and a 118 wRC+, July 30 August 14: .292/.375/.646, with a 30% K rate, 10.7% BB rate and a 182 wRC+, August 15 end of season: .106/.200/.153, with a 38.9% K rate, 8.4% BB rate, and a 9 wRC+. The club needs a backup shortstop who can spell Edman against some righties without sacrificing much defense for a contact-oriented pitching staff. After an All-Star season in 2019, DeJongs offensive performance has slipped steadily over the last three years. What went wrong for Paul DeJong in 2022? He, John Mozeliak, Oliver Paul was on fire and had a great day on [Friday], Johnson said. He returned in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon, batting 7 th and playing shortstop to give Tommy Edman a needed day off. Copyright 2023 Sporting News Holdings Limited. And Paul Dejong has been what hes been for a while now. Rather than keep trying to run him out there and hope for a different outcome, the reality is I think hes more comfortable going down and being able to get his work in and try to get himself where hes more than a productive member in this lineup, something that hes confident in., Mozeliak indicated there is no set timetable for when DeJong could return, noting only that he handled the conversation like a pro., (DeJong) understood, Mozeliak said. Following an injury- and illness-filled 2020, DeJong clubbed 19 home runs in '21, but he lost his starting job to Edmundo Sosa. MORE:Cardinals bolster pitching staff in deadline deal with Pirates for Quintana. I'm not reinventing my pitches, or trying to change anything drastically with my arsenal. We'll give him a few days and see how he responds to the treatment and overall work in the weight room, and then go from there.. He has won a basketball, a baseball, and a football championship in fantasy all within a year. The Yankees led 3-2. They didn't quite have in mind the . 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Memphis manager Ben Johnson, who guided the Triple-A Cardinals to a 12th straight victory on Saturday, feels DeJong is ready to make a difference at the MLB level with his steady demeanor and solid plate approach. Prior to joining The Athletic, Katie spent two years covering the minor leagues as an editorial producer for MiLB.com and spent the 2018 MLB season covering the San Diego Padres as an associate reporter for MLB.com.
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