The St. Louis Cardinals may not have a good enough internal option to fill the void left by Jhonny Peralta, so they've reportedly begun their search for a shortstop on the trade market. Sources suggest the club has its eye on Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed.
Last week we wrote Ahmed was a potential trade candidate for the Cards, and that appears to be the case now that the clock is ticking until Opening Day. The Diamondbacks have little use for the 26-year-old after acquiring shortstop Jean Segura from the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this offseason.
Now, both Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe and MLB insider Peter Gammons have reported the Cardinals' interest in Ahmed, but Gammons says the Diamondbacks may not be willing to make a deal unless they receive a top prospect in return. He specifically mentions pitcher Luke Weaver, who Baseball America ranks No. 4 in the Cardinals organization.
However, while Ahmed is a great defensive shortstop (he had 20 defensive runs saved last season), his offense has been pretty awful at the MLB level. In 159 career games the youngster is batting just .222/.269/.346 with 58 runs scored, 10 home runs, 38 RBI and four stolen bases. It remains to be seen, but I'm not so sure that type of offensive production would command a top-five prospect in return.
Weaver, 22, would be an awfully high asking price considering he went 8-5 with a 1.62 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 88 strikeouts in 19 starts (105-1/3 innings) at High Class A Palm Beach last season.
Then again, many evaluators would suggest Arizona came out at a disadvantage this offseason with the trades for Segura and starter Shelby Miller. Perhaps the team believes trading Ahmed can replenish some of those losses in the farm system, but the Cardinals are the wrong team to negotiate with since they rarely surrender top talent in trades, let alone overpay for such big deals in general.
With that being said, the Cardinals have also been linked to Braves' shortstop Erick Aybar and Mets' shortstop Ruben Tejada in rumors, but Atlanta GM John Coppolella said the team is not willing to move Aybar right now, and the Mets just lost shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera for two weeks and may not be inclined to move Tejada at the moment.
After losing a number of key figures this offseason (Peralta, John Lackey, Jason Heyward and Lance Lynn), St. Louis may be out of options, and filling that void at shortstop is likely to be integral to their success in 2016.
As a result, general manager John Mozeliak may be forced to overpay if he doesn't prefer any of the team's internal options.
