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Geezzz Carlson is already hitting .455 this spring. Do you keep him in the minors till April 10th and get another year of control? That’s a free 6 months of control this year. And then the 6 years of control starts next year. Cubs did it with Bryant.
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Part of Bernie’s article on the Athletic:
Because of his maturity and talent and refined knowledge of the strike zone, the Cardinals have aggressively pushed Carlson through their minor league system. Never worried about Carlson’s early-age starting point (17), the Cards never hesitated to move him up to the next level.
Here’s what I’m referring to:
2016: Carlson played for the Cards’ affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. He was 17. The average age of position players in the league was 19.6 years. Carlson was one of only four regular position players younger than 18 to compete in the GCL.
2017: Carlson climbed to Peoria in the Class A Midwest League at age 18. The average age for position players in the circuit was 21.3. There were only three other 18-year-old hitters in the Midwest League that season.
2018: after starting out in Peoria, Carlson soon moved up to a more challenging level of Class A ball at age 19, playing for Palm Beach of the Florida State League. The league’s average age for position players: 22.4.
2019: On to Springfield, then Memphis, at age 20. In the Double-A Texas League, the average age of position players was 23.8. In the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, the average age for hitters was 26.3.
Carlson has always been among the very youngest players in the league at every stop of his climb, yet he validated management’s bold strategy. He did an impressive job, handled the increased difficulty at every level.
After displaying complete confidence in Carlson’s advanced baseball intelligence, his refined plate discipline, his surging power …
Mozeliak is now expressing a need for caution and the desire to see Carlson head back to Memphis for a few more “important” at-bats.
After comparing Carlson to Pujols and Taveras two months ago, Mozeliak now wants us to believe that Carlson’s place, at least for now, is at a spot in line behind O’Neill and Thomas — and heck, maybe even wait to take his turn after Justin Williams.
After enthusiastically putting young Carlson on a fast track to the majors and watching him ramp up without a hitch, the Cardinals now have the mind to tap the brakes and slow Carlson down.
Or could it simply be that they want to slow the service-time express that would take Carlson to a few stops at arbitration en route to the final destination of free agency a year ahead of management’s preferred schedule?
I wonder if this perceived reticence is somehow related to the oil-well contracts that went to Mike Trout ($426.5 million), Gerrit Cole ($324 million), Bryce Harper ($330 million), Manny Machado ($300 million), Nolan Arenado ($260 million), Anthony Rendon ($245 million) or Stephen Strasburg ($245 million).
Not that I’m skeptical or anything.
But the Cardinals have never handed out a contract larger than $130 million. That went to their new first baseman, Paul Goldschmidt, a year ago.
If we look into the future, we can envision monster deals for pitcher Jack Flaherty and maybe Carlson. Obviously that depends on how the players perform until it’s their time to enter the free-agent sweepstakes.
If you can delay the massive payday for a year with Carlson, well, those few extra at-bats at Memphis really would be important and extremely valuable to Cardinals’ management.
Or if you are a team that’s desperate for offense, you could just put your best players in the lineup as much as possible — from Opening Day on.
It can be argued that Carlson should be in the St. Louis lineup for Game 1 of the regular season if he thrashes pitchers and excels defensively during his spring-training audition.
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