The St. Louis Cardinals traded Tyler Greene Thursday, ending his undistinguished Cardinals career a day after his error opened the floodgates in a blowout loss to the San Francisco Giants. You may feel okay about that now, even happy, but allow me to warn you: This could mean the return of Pete Kozma. And there are a lot of things I don't know, but I do know this: Tyler Greene is a better baseball player than Pete Kozma.
↵Kozma, the Cardinals' first-rounder in 2007, has earned a lot of ire for reasons beyond his control; he didn't ask to be drafted in the first round, or before Rick Porcello. But in 223 games at AAA Memphis he's a career .223/.286/.324 hitter. For reference, Tyler Greene is a .218/.295/.329 hitter in 227 games in the major leagues, where he was just booed out of Busch Stadium.
↵The other option is Ryan Jackson, the Cardinals' top shortstop prospect, whose defense is supposed to be outstanding, if not quite Brendan-Ryan-like. He'd be a better option than Kozma, and possibly a better option than Greene (he's not much of a hitter), but I'm not sure it makes sense for him to rot on the bench quite like it did for Greene, especially when he'd be mostly playing second base.
↵Of course, if Rafael Furcal's health problems continue their intermittent flare-ups, he could get more playing time than anybody bargained for.