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St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Derrick Goold reported on Monday morning that the Cardinals had touched base with the Milwaukee Brewers regarding first baseman Adam Lind:
The Cardinals had conversations recently with Milwaukee, and the Brewers are believed to be willing to trade first baseman Adam Lind. Lind has 16 homers, a .549 slugging percentage against righthanded pitchers, and the lefthanded swing the Cardinals prefer. That’s the profile — pop potential and from the left side. The preference, general manager John Mozeliak has said, is to add a short-term contract. There remains the possibility other options, such as Baltimore’s Chris Davis, become available in the coming days, or that the Cardinals turn inward for the bounce, as they have already.
I took a deep dive into why the Cardinals are interested in acquiring a first baseman. The position has been a bad one offensively for the club. Acquiring an everyday slugger to man first base would also allow Mark Reynolds to shift back to the bench role that the Cards signed him to fill during the offseason.
Later on Monday, a pair of ESPN writers helped develop the breadth of the Cardinals' trade deadline shopping. Jerry Crasnick was the first to take to Twitter with some juicy Cardinals-related trade tidbits. Crasnick's sources told him the same thing that Goold broke: St. Louis has been in touch with Milwaukee about Lind.
As @dgoold reported, the #STLCards have legit interest in Adam Lind as a LH first base bat. Hard to gauge chances of a deal.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 27, 2015
But Crasnick did not stop there. He also tweeted that the Cardinals' haven't been that involved to date with other first-base types. Specifically, the Cards are leery of Chris Davis because of his prodigious strikeout rate and have not inquired about Brandon Moss (a player I've had a handful of Cards fans ask me about) or Yonder Alonso.
Yonder Alonso, Brandon Moss and other lefty 1B types don't appear to be on #STLCards radar at the moment.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 27, 2015
#STLCards don't appear to be high on Chris Davis, even if #Orioles made him available. Wary of his high strikeout totals.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 27, 2015
As I wrote about at the time of the Reynolds signing, the veteran slugger was the antithesis of the Cardinals' team hitting approach for several reason, not least of which his penchant for striking out. With he and Randal Grichuk in the current lineup, it's not surprising to see the Cards shifting away from a whiff-heavy batsman in favor of one more skilled at contact.
For his career, Davis has posted a 31.0 K%. In 2015, it's 30.9%. That is far higher than Lind, who has struck out at an 18.9% clip for his career and 17.8% of the time in 2015. When it comes to the Cardinal (hitting) Way, Lind seems to fit the mold better than Davis.
Late Monday afternoon, ESPN's Jayson Stark joined the chorus of those in the know reporting that the Cardinals are interested in Lind. But Stark brought a different perspective than Goold or Crasnick. He tweeted what he is hearing from front-office types who are also inquiring about trading for Lind. These MLB personnel think Lind is going to end up wearing the birds on the bat before the non-waiver trade deadline on Friday.
Also hearing this from teams that have interest in Adam Lind. They think he's going to land in St. Louis. https://t.co/PbTOCz7c7q
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 27, 2015
Monday added fuel to the Lind-to-St. Louis fire. The trade-rumor smoke is getting darker. Could the Cardinals be closing in on a trade that will bring Lind to St. Louis?