Aledmys Diaz-Cardinals rumors are so old that I hadn't even been fired yet when they first broke, but the Cardinals' new interest—after a strange reverse-age-gate scandal delayed his arrival a year—is genuine enough that he's working out at their training camp and they're making an offer.
Last year I had to pull his 2012 Cuba stats from a fansite; luckily for us he hasn't played since, so his numbers are now on Clay Davenport's batting cards in full. What we have to work with—since Aledmys Diaz isn't working out at our training camp—are 1122 at-bats in a league that may be like some kind of A-ball that look like this:
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 32 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.281 | 0.281 | 0.281 |
| 2009 | 276 | 94 | 20 | 2 | 5 | 25 | 31 | 0.341 | 0.395 | 0.482 |
| 2010 | 262 | 74 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 28 | 0.282 | 0.333 | 0.363 |
| 2011 | 282 | 83 | 16 | 1 | 7 | 58 | 23 | 0.294 | 0.415 | 0.433 |
| 2012 | 270 | 85 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 36 | 25 | 0.315 | 0.395 | 0.500 |
| CAREER | 1122 | 345 | 54 | 7 | 27 | 139 | 112 | 0.307 | 0.384 | 0.440 |
Then, of course, he didn't play anywhere for a year. One other potential complication: His Davenport translations were way nicer a year ago than they are now. When I was pulling numbers from Clay Davenport's site in 2013, his 2010 and 2011 translations were .238/.284/.304 and .256/.354/.357. Presently they're .185/.229/.240 and .203/.303/.293. Greg Garcia, our control shortstop, actually had his DTs go up between then and now.
These are small samples and strange projections and years-old numbers; ultimately this is a scouting decision. But Greg Garcia, a year older and coming off a .271/.377/.384 season at a much higher level, seems like a strikingly similar (and much cheaper) offense-first shortstop prospect.