The St. Louis Cardinals, who have been looking for right-handed hitting outfield help this offseason, officially saw a top target come off the board on Saturday morning.

Outfielder Austin Hays signed a one-year deal with the Chicago White Sox, as reported by Jesse Rogers of ESPN. Subsequent reports indicated that the deal was for $6 million.

With Harrison Bader signing with the San Francisco Giants earlier this week, the options for the Cardinals are dwindling ahead of spring training, which begins in less than two weeks.

The Cardinals' interest in Hays was reported back on Jan. 20 by the New York Post.

Now 30 years old, Hays is an eight-year veteran of the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds. A career .262 hitter with 83 home runs, he made the All-Star Game for Baltimore in 2023. That season, he hit .275 with 16 home runs and 67 RBIs. 

He just had 15 homers for Cincinnati, playing only 103 games.

Players choose teams for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps the White Sox was the best financial offer, or perhaps it was the best playing time situation, or maybe it was a combination of the two. After back-to-back dreadful seasons, the White Sox appear to be coming out of their slumber, having signed reliever Seranthony Dominguez and slugger Munetaka Murakami this offseason. Hays figures to get regular playing time in Chicago and should continue to perform well against left-handers. The White Sox just traded Luis Robert Jr. to the New York Mets, opening up additional opportunities for him. (Update: Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic says that Hays wanted a chance to play every day).

If the White Sox surprise in the American League Central, so be it, but he could end up going to a contender in a trade deadline move.

There's no telling exactly what his opportunity in St. Louis would have been. The Cardinals currently have a plethora of outfield options including Lars Nootbaar, Victor Scott II and Jordan Walker. Alec Burleson and Brendan Donovan can both play out there and top prospect Joshua Baez is expected to debut soon.

Maybe the playing time wasn't as guaranteed with the Cardinals.

The following right-handed hitting outfielders are still free agents:

--Starling Marte

--Tommy Pham

--Randall Grichuk

--Austin Slater

--Hunter Renfroe

Pham is obviously a familiar name, as he's spent parts of six seasons with the Cardinals already in his career.

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