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Concern Increasing as St. Louis Cardinals’ Randal Grichuk Sits for Third Time in Last Four Games

By Patrick Karraker

Apr 8, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk (15) is unable to make the catch of an RBI single by Atlanta Braves third baseman Hector Olivera (28) (not pictured) in the third inning of their game at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk (15) is unable to make the catch of an RBI single by Atlanta Braves third baseman Hector Olivera (28) (not pictured) in the third inning of their game at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
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Randal Grichuk, thought to be the Cardinals’ center fielder of the future, has at least temporarily been benched for Jeremy Hazelbaker, who was released out of Double-A less than a year ago.

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Randal Grichuk, who was projected to be the team’s everyday center fielder this season, slid further into manager Mike Matheny‘s doghouse–whether the manager was ready to openly admit it or not–on Sunday, as Matheny chose to start rookie Jeremy Hazelbaker for the third time in the past four games, with Grichuk sitting on the bench again.

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It’s been an amazing ascension over the past 10 days for Hazelbaker, who only made the Opening Day roster in the first place because of an injury to shortstop Ruben Tejada, but has since earned a significant role on this Cardinals team. After collecting a pinch-hit double in the second game of the season, Hazelbaker earned a start in Game 3 of the opening series and hit his first big-league homer. After returning to the bench on Friday (but still managing to hit a pinch-hit homer), Hazelbaker has started ahead of Grichuk in center on both Saturday and Sunday.

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Rick Hummel wrote on Sunday, Matheny downplayed the impact of his lineup decision:

"Matheny said he wanted to “give Randal another day to put it together. He’s going to get lots of playing time. Right now, Jeremy (Hazelbaker) is doing a great job.”"

However, it’s highly debatable whether Grichuk is really going to benefit from a prolonged period of reflection this early in the season. It’s not even up for discussion whether the 24-year-old has played poorly thus far; through 15 at-bats in 2016, Grichuk has just one hit and has struck out eight times.

Then again, though, Grichuk is just more than a week removed from an effective spring training during which he hit .304/.360/.565 with two homers and six RBI. He was in NL Rookie of the Year contention before an elbow injury wiped out roughly a month of his season, and he finished the year with very positive results, putting up a .276/.329/.548 slash line with 17 homers and 47 RBI.

After an offseason where they expressed extreme comfort in him and pushed him to the forefront as a core player capable of helping replace Jason Heyward, though, it seems as if the Cardinals are being a bit naïve about what kind of player Grichuk is. At least in terms of making contact, Grichuk has been a streaky hitter throughout his major-league career. Through two seasons, here are Grichuk’s batting average by month: .143, .167, .105, .313, .320, .200, .302, .287, .278, .192, and .250. It might not be a coincidence that his best contact has come during the months where he’s gotten the most at-bats: September of 2014 (.320 in 50 at-bats) and May through August of 2015 (.302 in 53, .282 in 85, .287 in 87, and .278 in 54). That’s every month of his career during which he’s gotten at least 50 at-bats, and as is evident from the numbers listed above, he hasn’t been too effective when limited to spot duty.

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Thus, the Cardinals would probably be best served to let Grichuk work through his struggles on the field, rather than banishing him to the bench. And while the 28-year-old Hazelbaker is a great story and may very well have potential as a lefthanded-hitting bench bat, the fact that he got released by the Dodgers’ Double-A team last May and was viewed to have little to no big-league potential before last month makes it even more troubling that he’s seemingly supplanted Grichuk for the moment.

Things will soon reach a crossroads when it comes to the young outfielder. For now, we just have to believe Matheny and expect that Grichuk will be worked back into the lineup in the near future, even if that comes at the expense of playing time for Brandon Moss and Matt Holliday as Matheny tries to keep the red-hot Hazelbaker in the lineup.

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If Matheny continues to banish Grichuk to the bench, though, other measures may have to be taken. While it would be an embarrassment to the organization after they expressed so much confidence in the offseason, perhaps the best move would be to let Grichuk work things out while getting everyday playing time in Triple-A, rather than expecting him to turn things around while pinch-hitting and playing in spot duty, which he’s been proven to struggle with thus far through his major-league career.

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