Let’s fill the roster with marginal players!

Nothing like a nonsensical trade rumor to awaken a dormant blogger…

As spring training winds down, teams are frantically working to finalize their 25-man rosters before breaking camp and heading north. For many clubs, that means finagling trades to address their rosters’ shortcomings. The St. Louis Cardinals are no different, but a rumor making the rounds is puzzling to me:

The Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals have recently discussed a trade that would send infielder/outfielder Ryan Raburn to St. Louis…

While Ryan Raburn theoretically could be useful, don’t the Cardinals already have him on their roster in the form of SkipJoe SchuMather?

Raburn has put in a .255/.306/.407 line in 349 major-league at-bats, which ain’t saying much for a guy who turns 28 in two weeks. But perhaps Tony La Russa lusts after Raburn’s vaunted versatility, as Raburn has played second base, third base and all three outfield spots during his tenure with the Tigers.

But while Raburn’s always had something of a power stroke during his ample time in the minors, Joe Mather is the classic late-bloomer, not having slugged above .500 until his seventh season in the minors  when he hit 31 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A. And though his time in the majors last season was limited, Mather put up an above-average isolated power mark of .233.

As for Skip Schumaker, well… the plug has yet to be pulled on the Great Keystone Konversion, so he’s got that going for him. Which is nice. It appears, then, that this alleged Raburn flirtation is to fill the all-important role of Tony La Russa’s Aaron Miles Memorial Pet Scrappy Hustling Grinder. But the Cardinals have three in-house candidates for that role: Joe Thurston, Brian Barden and Brendan Ryan. La Russa even said himself that Thurston has a leg up:

Thurston’s got an edge, because he is our only left-handed-hitting [utility] infielder. That’s definitely a plus for him.

That’s why this Raburn rumor is so perplexing. There are several players already on the team that satisfy La Russa’s versatility fetish. It makes no sense to pay (in terms of trading players) for what you already have plenty of.