St. Louis Cardinals Reportedly Interested in Justin Turner

The Cardinals are reportedly interested in a big-name free agent, though he doesn’t exactly fill an obvious need.

According to reports from Jon Morosi of FOX Sports and MLB Network, the St. Louis Cardinals have developed some interest in a rather unexpected free agent target: third baseman Justin Turner, who spent the past three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but rejected a qualifying offer from them earlier this month.

The 32-year-old Turner is coming off of a career-best season in which he hit .275/.339/.493 with 27 homers in a career-high 622 plate appearances. He didn’t truly seize the role as the Dodgers’ primary third baseman until this spring, as the Dodgers tried everyone in the book–Juan Uribe, Alberto Callaspo, Alex Guerrero, Chase Utley, and even a then-unproven Corey Seager–to platoon with him during 2015.

Though his stardom is a new phenomenon, Turner historically has had a strong reverse split against righthanded pitchers and has been dominant in a platoon role. Against righties, he’s hitting  .299/.359/.473 for his career, compared to .247/.324/.371 against lefthanded pitchers.

In addition to Morosi’s suggested plan of trading Peralta–which seems somewhat unlikely unless the Cardinals give up other assets, considering that the 34-year-old is owed $10 million next season–the Cards could opt to think outside the box (and completely abandon their number one offseason goal of improving outfield defense) by moving Peralta to left field, a position that he played with the Tigers in 2013.

Since that move would likely leave Randal Grichuk in center field and would present a defensive downgrade in left, it’d present a frustrating solution to the Cardinals’ search for better-fielding outfielders. But it wouldn’t exactly be surprising for a Cardinals front office that has tended to read and react on the fly through the past several offseason.

More from Arch Authority

• St. Louis Cardinals: Randal Grichuk to begin Double-A rehab stint
• John Brebbia deserves a shot as the St. Louis Cardinals’ closer
• St. Louis Cardinals place Randal Grichuk on DL, recall José Martínez
• St. Louis Cardinals release RHP Corey Baker from organization
• St. Louis Cardinals activate Kolten Wong and Kevin Siegrist from DL, option Luke Weaver and Alex Mejia to Triple-A

Turner’s addition is one that might improve the Cardinals’ defense, but more than likely would leave it stagnant. In FanGraphs’ defensive rating–a metric that deserves to be questioned simply for the fact that Nolan Arenado has not led in it for either of the past two seasons–Turner ranked second among major-league third basemen in 2016 with a 16.2 rating. In 2015, though, he was ranked closer to the middle of the pack, as his 3.9 rating ranked him 18th among big-league third basemen with more than 100 innings played.

Overall, Turner’s very similar to Matt Carpenter in that he was a late-blooming infielder–he didn’t spend substantial time in the majors until he was 26 years old, and didn’t truly break out until his age 29 season–and he’s a guy who established himself as a utility infielder. Turner saw significant action at first base, second base, and shortstop before settling in nearly exclusively at third last season.

If the Cardinals sign Turner, it’s perhaps also possible that they could flex their payroll muscle (as they already have this season by cutting ties with Brayan Peña and signing Brett Cecil to a long-term deal) by designating Peralta for assignment. He’s coming off a season in which he posted a .715 OPS (His worst since 2012) and hit just eight homers, the fewest that he’s hit as a full-time major-leaguer.

The Cardinals surely are going to want to leave some playing time open for Jedd Gyorko, who’s still owed $25.5 million by the Cards and led the team in home runs last season. It’s also sink-or-swim time for Greg Garcia, who’s out of options but posted a career-best .276/.393/.369 slash line in 2016. The Cards also have Breyvic Valera available for utility infield depth, so if they ultimately are able to land Turner, there’d really be no role for Peralta.

Next: Cecil Signing Adds Veteran Presence to Cardinals' Bullpen

During an offseason where there have been (perhaps unjustified) complaints about the organization’s frugality, it would definitely show that they’re willing to spend big if they were to give Turner a huge contract, then pay Peralta to go away. With that said, it may not make the most  sense for what they need, since Turner isn’t going to provide a massive upgrade to the infield defense, and they themselves said that a defensive upgrade in the outfield was their biggest offseason need.