The St. Louis Cardinals shipped third baseman David Freese and pitcher Fernando Salas to the Los Angeles Angels for center fielder Peter Bourjos and a minor league outfielder on Friday, opening up the hot corner and natural position for Matt Carpenter, the incumbent second baseman and roadblock to Kolten Wong.
“It gives Wong a clear shot,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak told the Associated Press. “I think he’s going to hit.”
In less than three full seasons in the minor leagues, Wong, 23, has a combined .301 batting average with a .365 on-base percentage and .446 slugging percentage during stops at Single A, Double A and Triple A, where he was named the Pacific Coast League’s best defensive second baseman.
The four-player trade looks like another nod to the high regard the Cardinals hold for Wong, who was drafted in the first round in 2011 out of the University of Hawaii and fast-tracked ever since.
Wong essentially skipped two levels on the minor league ladder, making his pro debut in Single-A ball instead of a short-season farm team. The next season in 2012, he played in Double A instead of spending a full season at an advanced Single-A club.
In something of a rarity, Wong batted .287 in 523 at-bats at Double-A Springfield, the first time in his life he finished with a batting average under .300.
After the season, St. Louis sent Wong to the Arizona Fall League, the finishing school for top prospects. He more than held his own, and batted .324 with a homer and 12 RBIs with a solid .342 on-base percentage.
Another promotion was around the corner. In his age 22 season and only second full season of pro ball, Wong was at Triple-A Memphis and batted .303 with 10 homers and 45 RBIs in 107 games and 412 at-bats.
He compiled an .835 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in Triple A, the doorstep to the majors. Think of that stat as a school grading scale: 90 percent and above an “A” grade, 89 to 80 percent a “B” grade, and so forth.
Wong’s production came at the top of the minor league pyramid. Each organization has only two Double-A farm teams; at Triple A, there’s only one ballclub. The higher the climb up the minors the stronger the competition with fewer teams, an annual weeding of lesser prospects, especially with the Major League Baseball draft bringing in fresh crops every June.
The Cardinals called up Wong in August and he started at second base against right-handed pitchers, with Carpenter, who was drafted as a third baseman, replacing Freese at the hot corner. Wong batted .153 in 59 at-bats in 32 games, maintaining his rookie status — valuable financial leverage for the Cards.
Then St. Louis added Wong to the postseason roster, giving the 2008 Kamehameha graduate the distinction as the first Hilo-born major leaguer to ever play in the World Series. In six postseason at-bats, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, he had one hit against the eventual World Series champion BoSox.