Gather ’round the stove, children. It’s hot.
#STLCards are interested in ben zobrist. (of course so is nearly everyone else). story, notes comin on @CBSSports
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 25, 2015
That there is e.e. cummings… errr… Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tossing out a casual Tweet about Ben Zobrist so Cardinals fans can have a healthy side of debate with their turkey tomorrow.
Is it true? Do the Cards really covet the Royals free agent? Who cares! Let’s argue!!
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Ben Zobrist is one of the most controversial free agents on the market.
And while he hasn’t been caught on IG sucking on a bottle of Ace of Spades w/ Johnny Football (yet), Zobrist’s value is being hotly debated inside several front office suites.
From FanGraphs:
Ben Zobrist has been something of a polarizing figure in the game for seven years now. Ever since his 2009 breakout — where a 28 year old with -0.4 career WAR put up an +8.6 WAR season — his place among the game’s best players has been a point of discussion, with some pretty wide ranging opinions regarding his value.
To the sabermetric community, he was a legitimate superstar, putting up +35 WAR over a six year stretch, coming in behind only Miguel Cabrera among position players in MLB during that time. To those who evaluate players more by their physical tools and traditional performance markers, Zobrist was a good player but an archetype of the guy overrated by FanGraphs-style analysis, with too much emphasis placed on his defense and baserunning and not enough on his moderate power
They go on to note that even though his WAR placed him among the very elite in MLB, he was only a 2 time all-star and top-10 MVP vote getter 1 time.
Zobrist wasn’t quite the force he was in Tampa Bay for the A’s and then the Royals in 2015 in terms of WAR (1.9 for the season). But he was nails in the postseason, posting 20 hits (including 8 doubles) and 34 total bases over 16 games.
Oh, and a championship.
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Does he fit with the Cardinals? Yes. He can play multiple positions, including SS, 2B and RF.
Is he looking to get paid? Yes. He’s made a little under 32M for his career. At 34 this is his last chance to cash in on big free agent money.
How much will he get? The FanGraphs crowd projected Zobrist for 3 years, $42 million. Over at ESPN, Jim Bowden projected 3 years, $48 million. At MLBTR, Tim Dierkes forecasted 3 years, $51 million. At CBS, Jon Heyman guessed 4 years, $60 million. (via FanGraphs)
How serious are the Cardinals about Zobrist? Moderately. They love versatile players and if Zobrist is willing to take a bit less (probably not, see above), then they’ll make a run at him and try a 3 man weave at 2B/SS to give Peralta some more rest in 2016 during the regular season.
Give me a number. As we stand a day before Thanksgiving, I’d put the chances of Zobrist being a Cardinal in 2016 @ 35%.
Fun facts? Ben is married to Julianna, who is an aspiring singer.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/209545732″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]Photo: H4 Entertainment
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