Still reeling from the Albert Pujols news? Looking for a new player to hang all your hopes on? Have I got the perfect fit for you: Yoenis Cespedes, a burly, lightning-fast 26-year-old center fielder with power and incredible physical gifts, not to mention a hilarious movie-trailer-style scouting video. And he's from Cuba! Because his stats are impossible to decipher, we can project him as wildly and irresponsibly as we want!
↵Meanwhile: The Cardinals need another outfielder. Right now Allen Craig could miss part of the regular season and the fourth outfielder, with Lance Berkman at first base, is now... Adron Chambers? Erik Komatsu, their new Rule 5 outfielder, who looks like a strangely perfect, unproven clone of Jon Jay? If the Cardinals signed the right-handed Cespedes, Jay would return to being an outstanding, left-handed fourth outfielder, or else traded, maybe, for some similarly tweener infielder.
↵Now, the unfortunate news: Cespedes is in his prime and has great scouting reports, but he'll expect to be paid like he is, too. Expect something more than what Aroldis Chapman got from the Cincinnati Reds. On the plus side, now the Cardinals can most certainly afford it.
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