Victor Scott II is back with the Cardinals, but can he help the franchise finally stabilize the center field position? Cards center fielders rank in the bottom third of the National Leage in just about every major offensive statistical category again in 2026.
More center field roster churn by the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday illustrates the difficulty the franchise has had in building any sort of stability at that position in recent years.
Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill, Opening Day starters in 2022 and ’23, were ultimately traded away by the Cardinals following offensive and injury struggles.
Victor Scott II, who was recalled on Tuesday after hitting just .237 in 61 Triple-A games, was the Cardinals’ Opening Day starter in center field each of the past three years, but he’s had trouble holding onto that spot and has spent numerous stints in the Minor Leagues trying to find his offensive stroke.
Rookie Nathan Church enjoyed his finest month as a big leaguer in August (.282 batting average, .740 OPS and five extra-base hits), but he’s still hitting just .239 with a .649 OPS in 118 games. His struggles against left-handed pitching (.214 batting average, .587 OPS) likely hurt his chances of ever being an every-day player. He’s lost out on playing time in recent weeks as the Cardinals have auditioned Everson Pereira (10-day Injured List) and utility fielder Jose Fermin in center field to try and generate more offense from the position.
The Cardinals, who dropped five games back of the final Wild Card spot following a recent 3-7 stretch, have been able to stay in the playoff chase most of the season despite getting little production from their center field position. Cards center fielders rank in the bottom third of the National Leage in batting average (.226, 11th), on-base percentage (.289, 14th), slugging (.336, 12th), OPS (.625, 12th), homers (11, 10th) and RBI (50, 11th).
Defensively, Cardinals’ centerfielders have accounted for five Outs Above Average, ranking them 14th in MLB and sixth in the NL. Scott, who was with the Cardinals for 61 games before getting demoted to Triple-A Memphis on June 8, has a plus-3 rating defensively in center field. Church, 26, has a better defensive rating in 85 games in center field (plus-two) than he did in 36 games in left field (minus-1) while playing there as an injury fill-in early in the season.
Pereira hasn’t committed an error in 36 innings in center field. Fermin, who recently became the first Cardinals player since Andy Van Slyke in 1984 to play at least 15 games at third base (30), left field (38) and center field (22), has a minus-one Outs Above Average defensive rating as a center fielder.
In a season where the Cardinals have prioritized development of young players, they have yet to give a center field look to rookie slugger Joshua Baez, who has played 13 games in left field and two games in right field. To try and speed up Baez’s path to the big leagues, the Cardinals had him play more games in center field (44) than right field (32) or left field (21) at Triple-A Memphis this season. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Baez fared well in center with the Redbirds, recording two outfield assists and committing just two errors while roaming center field.
Scott, 25, returns to the Cardinals active roster where he has shown himself to be an elite defender. He finished third among all center fielders in Outs Above Average (16) in 2025. Offensive struggles in 2024 forced Scott to give way to Michael Siani, who was tied for third among all center fielders in OAA (14) two seasons ago.
Scott, who hit just .194 over 61 games with the Cardinals before being demoted to Triple-A on June 8, will likely have to swing the bat much better than he ever has to stick with the Cardinals long term. His strikeout rate has gone down a bit each season (27.1 percent in 2024 to 24 percent in ’25 to 23.9 percent in ‘26), but he’s been unable to boost his batting average or walk rates so that he could put his blinding speed to goo use. Scott’s difficulty in handling breaking balls -- .135 in 2026, .163 in ’25 and .069 in ’24 – has played a major role in his struggles at the plate.
