Everybody in baseball is aware that the St. Louis Cardinals are short at short. Trade rumors are flowing that the Baltimore Orioles offered shortstop J.J. Hardy for young starter Shelby Miller. However, though the Cardinals are in need, they wanted nothing to do with the deal. Was it a smart move? Let's break it down.
Hardy has pop and defense. What more can you ask from a shortstop? In fact, for the last three years, Hardy has led the American League in home runs, an area the Cardinals struggled in 2013, ranking fourth worst in baseball after totaling only 125 home runs in 2013.
In the last two seasons, Hardy has also proven he can handle the demands at shortstop, picking up back-to-back Gold Glove awards. He committed 12 errors in 645 opportunities, double his number of mistakes at short from 2012. However, Hardy is durable missed only five games in the past two seasons.
Without a doubt, he is a better player than the young Kozma, who committed significant errors during the postseason. However, the Cardinals did not turn down the deal because they wanted to keep Kozma, but the red birds are not interested in giving away their young starting pitching.
The entire world saw the kind of rotation the Cardinals possess. Yes, they have Adam Wainwright as the backbone of the rotation and Lance Lynn finds ways to win. However, two guys who kept St. Louis in the playoffs advancing from round to round, sitting just two wins away from their second World Series in three years, were Joe Kelly and Michael Wacha. There is a third youngster in the rotation that did not get much burn in the 2013 postseason starting rotation and that was Miller.
Miller appeared once in the division series, pitching one inning, allowing a run on a solo home run to Starlin Marte. That was all the action he saw in the postseason. However, during the regular season, he was one of the guys who stepped up to fill in for veterans like Jaime Garcia, who once again missed time due to an injury. Miller, at age 23, went 15-9 with a 3.06 ERA in 31 starts this season.
Wainwright is bound to walk at any point within the next three or five years, which will only make guys like Miller, Kelly and Wacha extremely valuable to the organization. Wacha proved he can be an ace and Kelly is scrappy enough to be a No. 2 guy. With Miller as the No. 3 in the rotation, in the near future, the Cardinals would continue possessing great starting pitching, which has always been a key to their success and a reason why they are so tough in the N.L. Central and in the postseason.
Hardy would have made the lineup deeper, knowing the N.L. Central after playing with the Milwaukee Brewers, but Miller is a no-go.