By JP
David Freese and Fernando Salas were traded to the Los Angeles Angels for outfielder Peter Bourjos and minor leaguer Randal Grichuk on Friday. As usual with John Mozeliak, this deal helps the Cardinals.
Peter Bourjos is very good defensive outfielder and could win the everyday center fielder job during spring training over Jon Jay. The main problem is that Bourjos is very injury prone and comes with the possibility of missing significant time. But that's why John Mozeliak is such a smart GM; Bourjos is a defensive upgrade, but can platoon with Jon Jay and (maybe mid season if not sooner) top Cardinal prospect Oscar Taveres. Matt Holliday will still patrol left field and Allen Craig will presumably play right field.
As far as the infield goes, trading away David Freese opens 3rd base up, which will allow Matt Carpenter to slide over from 2nd which in turn opens up 2nd for Kolten Wong. Wong struggled at the plate in limited at bats in 2013, however he showed defensive brilliance during the World Series. He also made a base running gaffe during the World Series, however, he is young and has spent very little time at the Major League level, so his mental mistakes can be excused. More at bats in the Majors should allow him to improve his batting and if he can continue excelling on defense, he will be a very valuable player.
The St. Louis Cardinals would not have won the 2011 World Series if they did not have David Freese and for that, I will always be grateful. But, unfortunately, professional sports is all about "what have you done for me lately" and lately, it could be argued, Freese may have cost the Cards the 2013 WS. It seemed like every game, sometimes multiple times in a game, Freese would get up to bat against the Red Sox with the bases loaded, only to weakly pop out or strike out. As I have stated previously, I function on the smell test (that is, I am not Sabermetrics guy), so it's possible that Freese may not have been in that situation every game (and I think Pete Kozma is also guilty of the same baseball crime). But it sure felt like it to me.
Freese was an All-Star in 2012, but struggled in 2013. Why? Well, he did start the season on the Disabled List with back problems, so it is certainly possible that he was suffering through that all season. If that's the case, then I give him props for fighting through it.
Having said all that, I am going to miss Freese. I love the idea of a boyhood Cardinals fan growing up to play for his favorite team. There is something poetic about that. The fact of the matter is, however, that on paper this trade improves the Cardinals for 2014.
Now they just need to get a short stop.
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