Since the Memphis Redbirds’ arrival in 1998, we’ve grown accustomed to the Triple-A outfit sending reinforcements up I-55 when the parent club — the St. Louis Cardinals — discovers needs on its roster. Three players we saw at AutoZone Park in April are now seeing regular duty in the Cardinals’ batting order: multi-position maestro Brendan Donovan and a pair of sluggers, Juan Yepez from the right side and Nolan Gorman from the left.
But there’s a twist this season. The Redbirds have recently received reinforcements, not from Double-A Springfield as is customary, but from the big-league club itself. Outfielder Tyler O’Neill earned National League Player of the Month honors last September when he was the key cog in a 17-game winning streak for St. Louis (the National League’s longest since 1935). But the two-time Gold Glove leftfielder landed on the injured list last month with shoulder discomfort. He joined the Redbirds for a rehab stint on June 3rd, then delivered what proved to be a game-winning home run in the ninth inning the next day. A fourth consecutive win improved Memphis to 31-22 for the season and a high-water mark (nine games over .500).
The circumstances that have Paul DeJong in a Redbirds uniform are more complicated than those for O’Neill. The 28-year-old DeJong — a National League All-Star in 2019 when he hit 30 home runs for St. Louis — has manned the shortstop position at Busch Stadium since 2017. But he struggled mightily to open the 2022 season, hitting only .130 over 24 games and striking out 25 times in 86 plate appearances. DeJong’s numbers weren’t much better in 2021, when he batted .197 and had far more strikeouts (103) than hits (70) in 113 games. With Tommy Edman — a Gold Glove second-baseman last season — moving to short for the Cardinals and Gorman stepping in at second, DeJong’s task is finding the swing that got him to that All-Star Game three years ago. Ask the Charlotte Knights and they might say he’s close to finding it. DeJong slammed four home runs in the Redbirds’ recent six-game series in Carolina. He’s driven in 19 runs in 21 games for Memphis, but continues to struggle making contact (21 strikeouts in 87 at-bats).
The fun part of this twist on talent sharing is that O’Neill and DeJong have merely supplemented the Redbirds’ regulars. Outfielder Alec Burleson — the Cardinals’ 10th-ranked prospect — earned the organization’s Player of the Month award for May, posting a .357 batting average with five home runs, 24 RBIs and 35 hits (a total that led all of Triple-A baseball). Burleson’s 42 RBIs in 46 games (through Sunday) rank fourth in the International League and have him on a pace that could threaten the Redbirds franchise record for a season (Nick Stavinoha drove in 109 in 2011).
Perhaps most significantly, the combined efforts of rising, rehabbing, and refining stars have the Redbirds sitting in third place in the International League’s West Division, four games back of the front-running Nashville Sounds . . . farm club of the very team St. Louis is chasing in the National League Central (the Milwaukee Brewers). All this with the Redbirds opening their longest home stand of the season (12 games) Tuesday night at AutoZone Park. The first guest will be the Durham Bulls (28-25), a club that lost five of six games to Memphis in its home park just over a month ago. Then the Sounds (34-18) come to town for what should be a bragging-rights series, at least for the state of Tennessee. Memphis hasn’t played a postseason game since winning the 2018 Triple-A National Championship. While the Redbirds have done their part to keep St. Louis in the playoff mix, they may secure a few critical wins — they count just as much in June as they do in September — with the help of veterans long familiar with the I-55 shuttle.
