# The Cardinals Sign Mark Reynolds

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/the-cardinals-sign-mark-reynolds/
- Published: 2014-12-11T19:43:27-06:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

The [Cardinals](https://www.nyrdcast.com/tag/st-louis-cardinals/) are leaving the
winter meetings with an additional player on the roster; the team has signed first
baseman [Mark Reynolds to a contract Thursday afternoon](https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/status/543097138230480899).
He’s receiving a [1 year, $2M contract](https://twitter.com/dgoold/status/543112096775667715).

[Reynolds](http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=7619&position=1B/3B) fills
2 needs for the Cardinals; a right handed bat off the bench and a source of power.
The down side is he doesn’t hit for average and he’ll strikeout in 30% of his at
bats. Last season, Reynolds belted 22 homers in 463 plate appearances for the Milwaukee
Brewers, while slashing .196/.287/.394; he struck out 122 times and walked 47.

For his career, he’s a .229/.324/.409 hitter with 224 career homers with the Arizona
Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Brewers.
He’s split time between first and third base, with a few games in the outfield.

The ideal situation for the role that Reynolds is filling would be a guy to play
against lefties at first base; Matt Adams has struggled against lefties not named
Kershaw, and a platoon was most likely going to be instituted. Reynolds doesn’t 
fit that profile though.

For his career, he’s a .231/.351/.458 hitter against lefties and .229/.314/.457 
against righties; nearly a third of his career at bats are against righties. In 
2014, Reynolds struggled against lefties more than righties; he slashed .173/.277/.
296 versus lefties and .204/.291/.429 versus righties in the same proportion of 
at bats for his career. Only 3 of his 22 homers came against left handed pitching.

Defensively he’s not very good either, even if [his 2014 was better than his career numbers](http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-most-improved-defensive-players-as-far-as-we-can-tell/);
granted, he didn’t start playing first base regularly until 2012 so he could be 
improving as he gets more comfortable. His career Ultimate Zone Rating for first
base is -6.6; last year it was 5.6.

His WAR has fluctuated over the last few years; he’s worth 9.6 wins over his career,
with 1.6 coming last season. His peak was 2009, when he was worth 3.1 wins.

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