Cardinals to sign Mark Ellis

[Migrant Redbird]

Which takes them out of the BRob sweepstakes, if they were ever in it to begin with.

MLBtraderumors

This basically closes the Cardinals off season, I think. Mozeliak had said that his unfinished business was getting a RH bench bat who could backup up the rookie, Wong.

Potential Cardinals lineup:

  Pos    Player   Bats Age    BA/OBP/SLG/OPS         Notes1 CF Peter Bourjos   R  26 .333/.392/.457/.849 (2013 before wrist fracture)2 3B Matt Carpenter  L  28 .318/.392/.481/.8733 LF Matt Holliday   R  33 .300/.389/.490/.8794 RF Allen Craig     R  29 .315/.373/.457/.8305 SS Jhonny Peralta  R  31 .303/.358/.457/.8156 1B Matt Adams      L  25 .284/.335/.503/.8397  C Yadier Molina   R  31 .319/.359/.477/.8368 2B Kolten Wong     L  23 .303/.369/.466/.835 (2013 AAA)B  C Tony Cruz       R  27 .203/.240/.293/.533B IF Mark Ellis      R  37 .270/.323/.351/.674B IF Daniel Descalso L  27 .238/.290/.366/.656B IF Pete Kozma      R  25 .217/.275/.273/.548B OF Jon Jay         L  28 .276/.351/.370/.721B OF Shane Robinson  R  29 .250/.345/.319/.664

I suspect the lineup 5-6-7 spots to fluctuate depending on the opposing starter. Also, Carpenter probably leads off if Jay or Robinson is in CF. Either Kozma or Descalso probably starts 2014 in Memphis unless there's a trade.

  Pos    Player Pitch Age  W-L  ERA    IP   WHIP HR/9 BB/9 SO/9SP Adam Wainwright  R 32  19-9  2.94 241.2 1.068  0.6  1.3  8.2SP Shelby Miller    R 23  15-9  3.06 173.1 1.206  1.0  3.0  8.8SP Michael Wacha    R 22   4-1  2.78  64.2 1.098  0.7  2.6  9.0SP Jaime Garcia     L 27   5-2  3.58  55.1 1.301  1.0  2.4  7.0  Shoulder surgery (5/24/2013)SP Joe Kelly        R 25  10-5  2.69 124.0 1.355  0.7  3.2  5.7CL Trevor Rosenthal R 23   2-4  2.63  75.1 1.102  0.5  2.4 12.9RP Carlos Martinez  R 22   2-1  5.08  28.1 1.412  0.3  2.9  7.6RP Kevin Siegrist   L 24   3-1  0.45  39.2 0.882  0.2  4.1 11.3RP Lance Lynn       R 26  15-10 3.97 201.2 1.314  0.6  3.4  8.8RP Seth Maness      R 25   5-2  2.32  62.0 1.258  0.6  1.9  5.1RP Randy Choate     L 38   2-1  2.29  35.1 1.047  0.0  2.8  7.1RP Jason Motte      R 31      Tommy John surgery (5/7/2013)

I put Kelly as the #5 instead of Lynn, but don't think that's likely to happen. I think that, as the Cardinals set their rotation near the end of spring training and other teams get desperate for starters, that Kelly and/or Lynn gets traded for high level prospects.