The Cardinals announced that they have recalled first baseman Luken Baker from Triple-A Memphis, with outfielder Óscar Mercado designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Mercado, 28, was signed by the Cardinals to a minor league deal in the winter and was called up to the big league club in mid-May. He’s been serving a part-time role since then, often as a defensive replacement or pinch runner off the bench. He’s appeared in 20 contests, only seven starts, and taken just 32 trips to the plate.
He hit a solid .290/.313/.387 in those but has had a hard time carving out a larger role on a club loaded with viable outfielders. Paul DeJong and Nolan Gorman have been spending a lot of time in the middle infield lately, pushing Tommy Edman and Brendan Donovan into spending more time on the grass alongside regular outfielders like Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson. On top of that, Tyler O’Neill is working his way towards a rehab assignment.
With all of those moving parts, Mercado has only taken two trips to the plate in the past two weeks and is now off the roster. He once seemed like he was carving out a regular role in the big leagues, as he hit 15 home runs with Cleveland in 2019 and slashed .269/.318/.443 overall while stealing 15 bases. When combined with his above-average center field defense, he was able to provide 2.2 wins above replacement that year, per the calculations of FanGraphs. But he fell off in subsequent seasons, hitting just .200/.258/.330 from 2020 to 2022.
The Cards will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers, though he’d have the right to elect free agency in the latter scenario. He has a previous career outright, which will allow him to reject another such assignment in favor of the open market.
Weird. There are worse players on the 40 to designate
Mercado can’t be sent down to Memphis. They will have to trade or release him. He’s taking up an active roster spot with no play time now that Noot is back.
They could outright him to Memphis, as long as he accepts the assignment.
Mercado would be in Memphis if he agreed to the assignment. I’m sure he hopes to catch a big league assignment.
I assume theyre doing solid by a young vet they signed as a free agent. Think of it as a good faith dfa.
He doesn’t have options. He has to clear waivers to go back down. Not weird at all.
This
Probably believe he will pass through unclaimed,also means O’Neill is nearly ready.
I can’t help but feel that O’Neill is going to very quickly be traded
Who would want him? He’s been pretty bad for the last two years and he’s been injured pretty often.
Couple those with his $5 million salary and last arb year, he would need to play out of his mind from here out to be worth trading. At his current pace, he’s a DFA candidate.
Yeah, right.
Cohen
He was top 10 in MVP votes in 2021. All he has to do is stay healthy. It would take a specific team to make a trade, one that doesn’t need him this year necessarily but is competing to win in 2024. Someone will want him
I am a cubs fan so I don’t know too much, but what I do know is that he is still a very solid defender, so someone will want him, whether it’s by trade or DFA. Besides it hasn’t been that long since he had a good season. Cards will have to cover a bit of the salary though, but it’s probably worth it for the roster spot
ONeill is better than Walker is but the organization is delusional and doesn’t understand defense. No the Cardinals don’t have to cover salary. ONeill is a very good player who has been treated like garbage by the organization. He will be better when he’s playing somewhere else.
I was almost with you until you said O’Neill is better than Walker. Not even close. You’re taking like Walker is playing his regular position. He’s terrible in the outfield but he’s also a rookie playing out of position for the first time at the major league level. O’Neill can’t hit major league pitching. And one solid year with the bat won’t change that. He’s like a more athletic Patrick Wisdom.
You don’t get bonus points for being young. You don’t get extra credit for playing out of position. When it’s time to play you need to perform and he can’t play defense he’s terrible.
Look up ONeills career OPS. He’s also a 2 time gold glove winner. He’s better than Walker is today right now. One day maybe Walker learns how to play defense but that hasn’t happened yet. Every other game Walker is making an easy play look difficult he’s truly terrible on defense.
You don’t get bonus points for past production when current production (2 years) says you aren’t very good. You can blame injuries but that’s still a part of a players profile.
He’s terrible…in the outfield. He’s a perfectly fine defender at 3b. He’s not looking for bonus points, judging by his negative war because his defense is terrible. He’s just producing at the plate and learning, which is something O’Neill can’t seem to do. No bonus points for a dude that can’t improve pitch recognition.
O’Neill is jacked and built like a brick sh!!house, but he can’t stay on the field. Maybe that’s also his problem if Walker playing out of position is his problem not the cards
I don’t think Walker is anywhere near fine a defender at 3b. I don’t know where you got that idea from.
ONeill is hurt. That’s the only problem with him. He sat behind Fowler for 2 years finally got a chance to play and was top 10 in MVP votes. This year he was called out by our amateur manager for not hustling which is truly insane if you know anything about ONeill. Walker got start after start because of as silly hitting streak.
ONeill is the better player. Walker is a negative WAR player. Walker has to either DH or play 1b to provide value and for whatever reason I can’t explain he isn’t doing that.
The whole organization and fan base is delusional about Walkers talent. One day he might be a good player but that day has yet to come.
Agree to disagree. Two years. Let see where each player is at in their careers. I think Oneill will be a journeyman, very similar to Hunter Renfroe. While Walker could be built around.
In 2 years it’s possible Walker is the better player but I highly doubt it.
The point is 2 years doesn’t matter right now matters. This is supposed to be a win now ballcub and the handling of Walker is a big reason that’s not happening this year.
Defense matters. If you watch the games you can see just how terrible Walker is defensively.
@King of, anyone who thinks Cards are built to win now is delusional. Wainwright is in twilight of career, Mikolas is being leaned on as an ace after 2nd good season of his career. Flaherty is coming off of years of injury issues. Matz will always b a back of the rotation guy. Montgomery is the lone bright spot. Pitching was clearly going to be their issue prior to the season starting and has been an issue all along.
Same team won 93 games last year.
Last year they had the benefit of a division heavy schedule in a weak division. This year teams no longer play such a division heavy schedule.
I hope we find a way to hang on to him. He’s an ideal 5th outfielder. Marmol should have made more of an effort o get him into games at least as a pinch runner/defensive replacement.
Marmol is a poor manager. It shouldn’t surprise you that Mercado has shriveled up on the vine.
Mercado’s biggest weakness is his glove. He has the last player u use as a defensive replacement.
honestly would’ve been a solid DH for the Bucs this past month,
but they just got Reynolds back , ensuring one of Cutch or Davis at DH every night
What will they do with Baker. Where can he play with no openings available?
Give him some ABs before the trade dead line and see comes calling? He looks like Luke Voit 2.0
It feels like Moe might want a good look at Luken Baker before the trade deadline. He’s been terrorizing AAA pitching and looked pretty good in his first few MLB at-bats. He’s a mountain of a man and is a good choice to be Goldy’s backup and yet another DH option.
Mo wants *other teams* to see Baker before the trade deadline. It’s no coincidence he came up to play against Texas and Miami, two teams with pitching. Miami has no first basemen signed for next year either.
And the White Sox are next.
How can a team that is 14 under .500 at the mid-point of the season not have “openings”?
All the openings should be on the pitching staff.
Yuck. Baker deserves a chance but Mercado is also a big leaguer. Burleson is not he needs to go
Burleson needs to get back in line at the buffet.
Hopefully St. Louis calls Mike Rizzo. That Jon Lester for Lane Thomas deal has worked out wonderfully. Nobody’s dumb enough to take Corbin, but I’m sure there’s somebody else the Nats don’t want they could send in exchange for Mercado.
Remember this is the same organization that just a few years ago sent Bader to AAA so that Jose Martinez could get playing time.
Burleson is a bum. Walker is a DH maybe a 1b but Goldschmidt plays there.
The team doesn’t understand how defense works. It’s a pattern of ignorance.
The Cards are traditionally one of the best defensive teams in MLB so they know how defense works. The problem is their best prospect happens to play a position they have a perennial Gold Glover in Arenado and they can’t move Walker to first because they have another GG there. You want to defend O’Neill but to say the Cards don’t know defense is stupid: Goldy, Arenado, Edmund, Noot, Carlson, Donovan, DeJong are all above average or better. Yes, O’Neill is a good defender but he can’t stay healthy and has one good year at the plate. Walker will never be his equal with the glove but I’ll bet he hits more consistently and if he stays healthy he’s a much better option than O’Neill.
The difference between Walker and ONeill defensively is night and day. Walker would have to have an OPS about 200 points higher to make up for it.
Yes Walker and Gorman having to switch positions has been a problem. Gorman is actually looking really good at 2b. Walker should be the DH he can hit no doubt about that.
ONeill is a lot more than 1 good year at the plate. He’s been treated like garbage by the organization first because Mo had to justify the Fowler contract and now because of the Walker hype.
Mo supporters seem to quickly, conveniently forget about the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent foolishly (someone else’s money) just so they can focus on the few times he actually did something right. They choose to ignore anything negative about him, like he’s a baseball genius/god. The entire major league organization needs to be overhauled.
I think Fowler was nothing more than a PR move, but it was just another failed attempt by Master Mo. Players like Fowler earning so much money for being average (at best) makes me absolutely sick, and it should do the same to anyone who actually works (physically) for a living.
You know players truly are special when you have to pay for them to play for a different team.
Showme 1, King 0
Correct. Teams of the past, successful ones, in STL, had great defense and adequate pitching with timely hitting. The defense is ignored as Marmol is trying everything, mostly illogically, to get any bat into the line-up. Forget all about defense. The pitching is mediocre so any attempt at offense is how Marmol thinks STL can win games. The collection of outfielders is a problem as few of them are play everyday OF guys. Hence, a rotating OF defense and a worse rotating batting order.
Cardinals put 5 players on the Gold Glove list last year and 4 players won. That does not include Bader who is one of the best with CF defense.
Cardinals have always been about defense which is why they get pitchers who pit h to contact. Defense is part of the Cardinal Way.
Top 5 – 10 program in all of sports for like 30 years now.
This move probably should have happened 2 weeks ago. However, at one time Mercado was needed when O’Neill, Carlson and Nootbaar were all on the IL because he was the only guy who could play a defensive CF until we discovered Tommy Edman could do better… Now no longer needed, and with. the OF logjam stacking up again, the Cards will have to make more moves like this one to figure out who the hell starts, who stays and who goes elsewhere. .
Edman really doesn’t belong in center. But DeJong has earned the right to play short again. And 2b is crowded with both Donovan and Gorman playing there.
A trade needs to he made. It should have been made in the offseason and it became a bigger problem when someone decided Walker needed to skip AAA.
I never thought I’d be looking forward to a trade deadline – where the Cards were sellers. But that’s right where I am this year.
The mess of the too outfielders… who plays, who sits, who goes, who is on the IL today… who might hit, who cannot hit, who is hot, who is cold…. Marmol is over-matched intellectually to figure that shell game out.
I agree Marmol is the biggest problem over everything. Mozeliak isn’t the problem the only problem is he keep hiring managers with no experience. If he stops doing that Mo is fine but Marmol has to go.
You wouldn’t think Mo is “fine” IF HE SPENT YOUR MONEY.
Why does Pallante keep getting chances in tight situations? He can’t locate in or out of the zone. “But he throws hard.” I’m tired of the velocity at all costs approach to pitching.
Yes, teams are in love with the radar gun over command. You can’t always teach command.
If I owned a big league club, I wouldn’t allow that mph display in my ballpark any longer.
Even though modern radar guns determine the speed basically as soon as the pitcher releases the ball, instead of once the ball reaches the batter, which would actually reduce the speed by several mph. Modern radar readings are just another inflated figure for more “wow-factor” for fans who don’t know any better.
That isn’t entirely true, most radar guns are accurate within 2-3 mph one way or the other…
Some might inflate their numbers for show or for that “wow-factor” you’re talking about, YES that does happen, but generally most readings are pretty accurate and pretty much the same across the board.
There would be a much higher variance if you were measuring from the release, not to mention the speeds would also be significantly higher…Not just a few mph.
A great idea. Would definitely keep the pitchers more focused on pitching instead of throwing.
Kim Ng is having a laugh at the Cardinals’ expense tonight. Her well documented vindictive nature can be fully directed towards the Cardinals fans, front office, and players.
If I were another club, I’d take a flyer on Mercado.
I used to admire the way the Cardinals ran their organization, but the past couple of years it looks like the lunafics are running the asylum from the outside.
St. Louis has great fans. They always draw big. I feel for them.
Unfortunately I couldn’t agree more
The Cards certainly have a devoted fanbase, no doubt about that, but have you been to Missouri? What else are the fans going to do? Get drunk while their kids swim in the rivers/streams or take the family camping with a nonexistent camper most of them can’t afford during summer heat? DeWitt had to know there’s not much else to do here before he bought the team. Missouri is smack-dab bumpkinville.
Oh yeah, I guess I forgot how absolutely awful it is to get drunk and go swimming.
Tigers should give him a try. Cut Tyler Nevin finally and give him his 40 man roster spot.
Forget Mercado, DFA those bums in the bullpen
Forget Mercado, They need to DFA half of those bums in the bullpen