He arguably had a better case than Walker for making the team but the Cards have nowhere to play him. He'll be our SS by the all star break. Edman will move to 2nd or be forced to a utility role if Gorman or Donovan are lighting it up. The Cards are stuffed to the gills with position players and no place for them to play

The Cards are stuffed to the gills with position players and no place for them to play

If only there was something they could do with all that excess value...

Masyn Winn

Tink Hence

Did Walt Disney come back to life and start naming Cardinal players using suggestions from the 30's?

Winn had a great spring, but has a good attitude also and his holes are more obvious than Walkers regardless of the results in the 18 or so games in spring training. I'm agreeing with Duke, that it's going to be hard to keep him off the roster post all star break. It's a good problem to have, at the same time it pretty much means the team is going to have to end up jettisoning a starting position player in a trade for more depth pitching, barring a major injury.

Winn is a much better potential bat than Edman and they are relatively equal defensively at short, and Edman is absolutely superior at second (Winn's arm tool that helps him at short doesn't really help gap the range difference at second... Edman has better range) Meanwhile Donovan is also a much superior offensive player than either of them right now and not quite as good defensively as either (even with the gold glove) So all of that is nice, but then you add in the factor that Gorman's offensive upside is massively higher than Edman/Donovan and probably even Winn, but he's a defensive neutral to a liability on a team in which the pitching staff is the biggest weakness and needs as much help as possible. Add in that they also have 4 outfielders, all relatively equal in value and all with potential similar upsides and it creates a jam in available everyday players vs playing time. For one year you can absolutely get away with it, but at some point you are damaging a players career if you don't move one of them (or even two)

(and of course this is ignoring Juan Yepez, who clearly feels like he could be a starting corner outfielder for 10 or more teams in baseball right now)

One factor that has yet to be recognized by the St. Louis press that affects Mason Winn and the entire ss/2b position for the Cards is that Brendan Donovan is the best leadoff man in the entire National League, and so has to play every day somewhere. He has the best OBP of any leadoff candidate (the three guys who finished ahead of him last year - Freeman, Goldschmidt and Soto - are not going to be hitting leadoff. His numbers last year are completely consistent with his minor league numbers. He's a .280 singles hitter with a .400 OBP. There are no secondary factors to move him down the list compared to any other actual leadoff man. Oliver Marmol seems to have some concept of this and keeps hitting Donovan leadoff. Bringing up Winn would force Edmon and Donovan to compete for 2B, with Nolan Gorman thrown in just for extra crowding. And that's not even counting that the Cardinal lineup, as it is, is VERY heavily biased towards right-handed power hitters. Six of the Opening Day nine may well be in that class, since Walker, a righty power hitter, made the team. Yes, Dylan Carlson is a switch hitter, but has the platoon splits of a righty. Donovan hits lefty. So does Gorman. Neither Winn nor Edmon does.

The current plan seems to be to play Donovan every day at 2B, except for days when Edmon gets a day off at SS, when Donovan will move over to short. So, when either Edmon or Donovan gets a day off, Gorman will play 2B. That makes sense. There is just no place for Winn at this point. The Cardinal lineup may well resemble:

Donovan
Nootbar
Goldschmidt
Arenado
Contreras
O'Neill
Walker
Carlson
Edmon

Slots #3 - #8 are righty power hitters. (Well, Carlson is not really a power hitter.)

Gorman will be DH against righties and Donovan will be super utility and Nootbar and carlson will get plenty of at bats against righties. Winn's Arrival will eat into Donovan's playing time. Edman is looking more and more like a trade candidate to me if Donovan's new found power materializes.

Slots #3 - #8 are righty power hitters.

Nootbaar hit 14 homers in 290 ab last year, that extrapolates to 25-30 over a full season, replace Carlson with Gorman and now it's legit 2-8 are power hitters.

Cardinals often have a few guys in the lineup that may hit 25 homers, sometimes 4 and very rarely 5, but I don't think they've ever had 7 25-homer guys in the lineup.

Did Walt Disney come back to life and start naming Cardinal players using suggestions from the 30's?

"2023 Baseball Player or Character from the Latest Star Wars Series on Disney+?"

I don't think I would do very well at that game.

Donovan hits lefty. So does Gorman. Neither Winn nor Edmon does.

Nice analysis. Just wanted to point out that Edmon is also a switch-hitter.

"2023 Baseball Player or Character from the Latest Star Wars Series on Disney+?"

I don't think I would do very well at that game.

One of the You Don't Know Jack games had "Medical Condition or James Bond Character?" One of the amusing ones was Goldfinger. And then I doubled over laughing at Octopussy.

And then I doubled over laughing at Octopussy.

That is definitely a hentai condition.

Ah, crap. Spelled his name wrong. Edman.