Cardinals Trade Aledmys Diaz, Add To Crowded Outfield

The Toronto Blue Jays have traded prospect OF J.B. Woodman to the Cardinals in exchange for SS Aledmys Diaz.

 

 

Blue Jays acquire: Aledmys Diaz, SS

Age: 26

The Blue Jays are buying low on Diaz. Just a year ago, he was coming off of one of the better rookie seasons in the National League. He struggled in his sophomore season and saw himself supplanted by Paul DeJong. Diaz has always been stretched defensively at shortstop, but he has versatility and gives Toronto a fallback option if the oft-injured second baseman Devon Travis misses time. With the Blue Jays non-tendering Ryan Goins, Diaz heads to spring training pencilled in as the club’s likely backup in the middle infield.

Cardinals acquire J.B. Woodman, OF (LoA Lansing)

Age: 22

For the Cardinals, Woodman adds to what was already an incredibly crowded depth chart in the outfield. Most of the Cardinals outfielders are slotted in the big leagues, Double-A and Triple-A, so Woodman will be a year or two behind them in development, alleviating some of the worries of a traffic jam. The 2016 second-round pick has power and enough athleticism to play a serviceable center field, but he’s better in right, with a true right fielder’s arm and above-average speed. None of that will matter unless he starts putting together better at-bats. As a player with plenty of experience in the Southeastern Conference, low Class A should have been an easy assignment for a first full pro season. Instead he struck out a frightening 38 percent of the time in low Class A in 2017 which kept him from hitting for average or power. Woodman has the power and speed to be a useful big league outfielder if he makes consistent enough contact, but that will become the Cardinals key development point now.