The conventional wisdom that Allen Craig will be the St. Louis Cardinals' right fielder and Matt Adams will play first base may not be the way things work out during the 2014 season.
MLB.com columnist Jonathan Bernhardt has some good things to say about St. Louis' talented rookie Oscar Taveras and says he may just step into the right field job, replacing Carlos Beltran and moving Craig back to first base and Adams back to the bench:
Taveras went into 2013 as the No. 3 prospect in baseball by both Baseball America and MLB.com house charts in his age-21 season, and handled Triple A quite well until May, when he badly injured his ankle, tried to play through the pain, finally got shut down in July and underwent season-ending ankle surgery in August. The major concern with Taveras is no longer the bat; the bat can play, and if the Cardinals' recent track record of player development is any indication, it can play on a level that should allow him to step right in and replace Carlos Beltran in right field. Taveras has the arm for that position, unlike many center fielders.
The question is how his mobility will be affected by the ankle injury and surgery. It's unlikely his defensive profile will take a massive hit, but the risk is there -- so much so that the Cardinals traded David Freese to the Angels for Peter Bourjos this offseason, solidifying the center field position with Jon Jay still on the roster and pretty firmly committing Taveras to the outfield corners for 2014. Still, so long as he shows up to camp healthy and performs, Taveras should be the everyday right fielder in short order.
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