Let’s be clear, Arozarena was a good prospect traded for a Top 100 prospect. Don’t let that escape us.

However, the inability of the Cardinals to give him opportunity in 2019 is pretty tragic: A Thread...

Randy was promoted on Aug 13th, 2019 after destroying PCL pitching. To set the scene, Bader’s in Memphis Exile, O’Neill has been on the IL for 2 weeks, Fowler is the primary CF with RF being a combo of Edman/Martinez. Martinez hitting the IL opened a roster spot. Shildt says...

Quite explicitly, it’s said that Thomas is going to get first opportunity. Thomas would start on Aug 13th, and then not again until the 18th, and then never again. So this wasn’t true.

Randy would start both the 14th and 15th in CF.

Also on the 15th, Carpenter returned to 3B after DHing in KC. Edman sat. The next day, the ripple pushed Randy out of the lineup, Edman into RF and Fowler into CF. That would be the alignment for 8/16-8/19, save for Thomas’ start on the 18th.

On 8/20, Bader was recalled from Memphis, Randy demoted, and his opportunity was over after just 8 plate appearances and 3 games (2 starts) over a 7 day span.

Fowler, Edman, Carpenter and, ultimately, Bader took priority over seeing if Randy’s AAA performance could translate.

Randy returned with expanded rosters on Sept 4th, starting twice (on the 5th and 25th) but otherwise serving as a PH/PR/Def. Replacement during the month.

He hit .344/.431/.571 in AAA for the year, the Cardinals offense was anemic, and this was the best they could do.

Simultaneously, Lane Thomas did well in 36 ABs in 2019, but never got a full run of playing time. Then, when his season was ended by injury they said “guess we should have played him more.”

Edmundo Sosa has occupied a (precious) 40-man roster spot since he was in A-ball, added after the 2016 season. He has 13 MLB plate appearances.

Luke Voit could not get through the blockade of Carpenter, Martinez, and (vicariously) Gyorko.

Strange things.

Just to cap this, the Cardinals tend to give opportunities to players that they have projected to be MLB players throughout their minor league climb (i.e. Bader, Edman, Carlson) but struggle to do so with surprises and breakouts.

Many good players in MLB came out of nowhere.

In addition to the failure to play Thomas and Randy, I am in the camp that believes they should have aggressively promoted Dylan Carlson in August 2019. They played it safe. Then Carlson went 10 months with only Grapefruit League play as competitive games. He suffered for it.

So to summarize, with Randy as a prime example, the Cardinals need to look long and hard at their internal evaluations as well as the risk-averse tendency to lock on to lower-ceiling-but-projectable players at the cost of missing on higher-ceiling-but-volatile guys.