Tommy Edman Is The Latest Unlikely Star In St. Louis
Since the turn of the millennium, the St. Louis Cardinals have had only one losing season. In that span, the organization has developed countless major league contributors on both sides of the baseball. Chief among them is 27-year-old superstar infielder Tommy Edman, who has quietly become one of the game's most valuable players.
Superstar? Tommy Edman? I know that might seem a little rich. After all, Edman shares a roster with franchise legends Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, as well as more conventional superstar-types such as Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. But Edman, depending on which value metric you are looking at, ranks anywhere from 16th to the best player in baseball.
Tommy Edman is among the league leaders by any value metric
Value metrics and ranks for the 2022 MLB season among position players for Tommy Edman of the St. Louis Cardinals
Source
Metric
Value
Rank
FanGraphs
WAR
3.4
7th
Baseball Prospectus
WARP
1.9
16th
WAR
4.1
1st
Through games of June 22.
Sources: FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus,
Edman is the shining star of the sixth round of the 2016 MLB amateur draft out of Stanford University. Coming up through the minors, it looked like Edman was headed in the direction of being a major league contributor, albeit of the glove-first, super-utility type, peaking only as the Cardinals' No. 20 prospect before the 2019 season, per FanGraphs...