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Fowler would help Cards get back to strengths
- Updated: December 9, 2016
No, the Cardinals won’t get better than the Cubs with this one potential move, regardless of how smart it appears to be. All the imminent signing of center fielder Dexter Fowler will do is close the gap.
That it comes at the expense of the Cards’ chief rival is an added bonus.
OK, it’s too early for this kind of stuff. The Cubs still have the look and feel of the best team in baseball. They’re smartly constructed and managed.
But we knew that already. On the other hand, declaring dynasties is a tricky business. Like every other team, the Cubs have some unknowns: What’s the career arc of all those young guys? Can a veteran starting rotation repeat last season’s 2.96 ERA?
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This is what’s important: Fowler would make the Cardinals better, probably way better. He’s an above-average center fielder who would be a dynamic presence atop the lineup. In 2016, he had a .393 on-base percentage — sixth-highest in the NL — and 45 extra-base hits. His 4.1 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball-Reference.com, would have led the Cardinals in 2016.
He has played some October baseball, too, which is what the Cardinals intend to do in 2017. He has a dynamic easygoing personality that impacts every corner of a clubhouse. And his leadoff homer in Game 7 of the World Series was one of the top moments of an epic postseason.
Perhaps more significant is that he would steer the Cardinals back to the kind of team general manager John Mozeliak would like them to be, by …
