Cardinals 24-Year-Old Is Making St. Louis' Roster Battle Difficult

The St. Louis Cardinals are going to have to make some tough choices before Opening Day gets here in a few weeks.

March is here and that means we are just about three weeks away from real Cardinals baseball. The team is in full swing with Spring Training action, but Opening Day is almost here. With the Cardinals not moving on from as many veterans as it initially hinted it wanted to, there are fewer spots to go around for some of the organization's young guys.

There are a few notable position battles going on in camp and the most interesting one right now arguably is center field. Michael Siani, Lars Nootbaar, and Victor Scott II all have gotten reps in center and the competition will come down to these three.

Nootbaar mainly has been a corner outfielder to this point, but moving him to center would open a corner for someone else. Siani played a lot of center for the Cardinals last year and was phenomenal defensively but not as good offensively. Scott got a chance to begin the 2024 season due to injuries but struggled offensively as well before Siani took over.

Who will end up winning the job? We are still early in camp but Scott certainly has stood out -- at least offensively. He's been red-hot so far and is slashing .556/.667/1.111 in four games with one home run, three RBIs, one triple, and five runs scored. He's walked three times and stolen three bases while striking out just twice.

That's a small sample, but it's also a lot of success over that stretch. Nootbaar currently is hitting .222 while Siani is at .083. There's more to baseball than just batting average, but Scott has been the best offensive player of the three through camp so far.