BREAKING:Veteran SS, Two Time World Series Cardinal In Talks With Winners

Veteran Shortstop and two-time World Series MVP Talking With Winners

According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there is mutual interest between the Cardinals and shortstop Brandon Crawford. In a similar vein, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle highlights the two parties and speculates that a deal might be reached swiftly.

According to a story from last week, the Cards were considering Elvis Andrus, Nick Ahmed, and Crawford as potential candidates for shortstop depth. Ahmed eliminated one possibility the Cardinals may have explored when he inked a minor-league contract with the Giants earlier today.
The 37-year-old Crawford has so far played his whole career for the Giants. They drafted the native of the Bay Area in 2008, and he joined the major leagues by 2011. He went on to win two World Series with them, in 2012 and 2014.

He’s had a lot of successful years during the last ten or so years, but he just had a number of disappointing campaigns. He blasted a career-high 24 home runs and had a wRC+ of 140 in 2021 while slashing.298/.373/.522. In order to keep him off the open market, the team signed him to a $32 million, two-year deal along the road. They didn’t get anything out of that deal, despite having a franchise icon on the squad.

Crawford only hit nine home runs in 118 games in 2022 before going on the injured list because of knee problems. With a hit batting line decline to.231/.308/.344, the wRC+ was 88. And depending on your preferred statistic, his defence might have deteriorated as well. Although Defensive Runs Saved gave him a -6, Outs Above Average still had him at +7.

The previous year was considerably worse. Right calf strains, left knee inflammation, left forearm strains, and right hamstring strains all resulted in IL visits. With just 94 games played, he managed a meek batting line of.194/.273/.314. Once more, the defensive stats were evenly distributed; Crawford had +6 OAA but -14 DRS.