After losing their first three games of the season the St. Louis Cardinals have won seven of their last 10 games and are right back on track. The Cardinals suffered a big-time loss in spring training when Jhonny Peralta hurt his thumb and required surgery. The Cardinals knew they would be without Peralta for a while so they needed to patch up the shortstop position while he was out.
So far this season Aledmys Diaz, Jedd Gyorko and Greg Garcia have all seen time at shortstop while Ruben Tejada has just come off the disabled list. Diaz has seemingly taken over the everyday job due to the way he has been swinging the bat but his defense leaves a lot to be desired. The question now is whether the Cardinals should go with defense (Tejada) or offense (Diaz) until Peralta gets back.
Peralta himself is good on both sides of the ball as he is one of the top offensive shortstops in baseball and although he doesn't have great range at shortstop, he makes all of the routine plays. The two options to replace him have their flaws. Diaz is batting .400 with two home runs and eight RBI in Peralta's place but he has also committed four errors in just 13 games.
Head coach Mike Matheny says that Diaz has provided more good than bad and that the Cardinals will just have to live with it for now but he has seen improvement. While Diaz struggles on defense Tejada is actually a pretty decent defender but his issue is with the bat. Tejada was signed by the Cardinals after Peralta's injury and he was expected to see the bulk of the time while Peralta recovered. Tejada though had a quad injury and was just activated from the DL on Sunday.
It seems like for now Matheny will continue to roll Diaz out there as his shortstop but he does have a more defensive minded option in Tejada if the rookie's struggles continue. This Cardinals team would be able to afford going with a lesser bat at shortstop in favor of defense because through 13 games they lead the majors in runs scored with 85, which is eight more than any other team.
For now keeping Diaz as the shortstop is not a bad idea for the Cardinals especially because he was never considered a defensive liability in the minor leagues. Peralta is making progress but he is still expected to be out until June or July so the Cardinals will need their shortstop for the time being to make all of the necessary plays. Diaz has yet to do that but his bat has given him extra opportunities. If Diaz doesn't show improvement in the field soon though, don't be surprised to see Matheny insert Tejada as the everyday shortstop.
