The St. Louis Cardinals swapped out defender Dexter Fowler for the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night. The return of St. Louis is a player to be named later or cash considerations.
The first observation at the surface level is that Fowler is reunited with Joe Maddon, the current manager of Angels, who managed him during the 2015-16 seasons with the Cubs. The 2016 season was the best of Fowler’s career and he was the catalyst for the attack, with Maddon’s famous phrase, “you go, we go”.
Fowler signed a five-year, $ 82.5 million contract with the Cardinals the following off-season. Only a year to go and $ 16.5 million left in the business now. The Angels are receiving $ 12.75 million from the Cardinals to cover most of Fowler’s salary in 2021, according to Maria Torres of the LA Times.
Fowler, 34, reached 0.233 / 0.317 / 0.389 (92 OPS +) with four home runs, 15 RBI and 14 runs in just 31 games last season.
The move somewhat eases the congested external field for Cardinals, although it doesn’t stop them from adding someone else if they think they can find an upgrade at the free agency. Dylan Carlson, Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill seem to be the daily outfielders for the Redbirds now, although Tommy Edman could be used there with Matt Carpenter sliding into second base. Justin Williams and Lane Thomas could also see some time.
At the end of the Angels, it looks like Fowler takes over on the right field, alongside Mike Trout and left field player Justin Upton. This allows them to give Jo Adell more spice in the smaller categories before keeping him at the level of the big league after a difficult debut campaign.
If Maddon decides to leave Trout in the three holes with Anthony Rendon in fourth – as he did last season – he may want to put Fowler back on top, as he did with the Cubs. If this is the case, David Fletcher is an excellent choice in both holes with his high contact and medium high profile. Then there are names like Upton, Shohei Ohtani and Albert Pujols to provide the strength behind Rendon.
For this to work, however, Fowler needs a return to form. He had a percentage of 0.346 at the base in 2019 and the latter was above 0.350 in 2017 (0.363).