The St. Louis Cardinals are reportedly pursuing Charlie Blackmon and Corey Dickerson from the Colorado Rockies. A report from Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests that the Redbirds are more likely to target the two outfielders in a trade than Carlos Gonzalez.
Hochman's report comes a few days after Jon Morosi of Fox Sports noted that St. Louis and Colorado might be able to agree on a possible deal. Morosi reported early last week that the Cardinals were interested in signing one of the Rockies' outfielders. The move makes sense for the team to add an outfielder after sending Jason Heyward to Chicago in the offseason.
While Colorado is supposedly shopping three of its outfielders, Carlos Gonzalez might not be a realistic option for St. Louis. CarGo, as they call him, has been linked to several clubs this winter, but the Rockies do not appear to be lowering his price tag.
Gonzalez, who turned 30 in October, has suffered numerous injuries in his career. In the second-half of the last season, the former batting champ had 27 homers, 62 RBIs and a slash line (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) of .285/.337/.638.
Instead of CarGo, Blackmon and Dickerson are more feasible options. However, both of them come with drawbacks: Blackmon's stats away from his home field are underwhelming, and Dickerson has been dealing with a weak throwing arm.
The 26-year-old Dickerson he could also prove to be costly in a trade since he had a more promising season than Blackmon. In more than 65 matches last season, Dickerson batted .304/.333/.536 to complement 10 home runs along with 31 RBIs. Dickerson made his debut back in 2013 and over his career has hit .299 with 39 home runs and 124 RBI in 265 games.
Meanwhile, Charlie Blackmon is seen as the more well-rounded of the three outfielders. In the previous season, he hit .287 with 17 home runs and 58 RBI along with tacking on 43 steals. The center fielder also stole 43 bases and would potentially add a left-handed bat to St. Louis' outfield.
It has yet to be known what the Rockies would want in return from this potential trade. Hochman did hint that Matt Adams could be involved if the Cards pursue a deal with Colorado. Not only would the first baseman be a more desirable name for the latter, but he is also less versatile than Moss, meaning he is more valuable to the Cardinals.
Should the deal push through, Adams will play the majority of the 2016 season in Coors Field could put up some strong power numbers. It was in 2013 that the 27-year-old hit 17 in 319 plate appearances.
The downside with acquiring Adams is that he is coming off of a less than stellar season where he was on the disabled list for a significant amount of time. He only got 186 plate appearances while hitting five home runs and slashing his career-worst stats of .240/.280/.377.
