The off-season chatter pertaining to the Cardinals’ lineup has centered mostly on what effect recently acquired Paul Goldschmidt will cause and whether Marcell Ozuna’s right shoulder will be healed enough for him to generate more power this season.
Generally pushed to the back burner is shortstop Paul DeJong, who fairly quietly has hit 44 home runs in basically 1 ½ big-league seasons (223 games).
“Maybe I’m going under the radar again,” said DeJong, who hit 19 homers and drove in 68 runs but batted just .241 in 2018 after hitting 25 homers and batting .285 in his rookie year.