It was just about this time last year where the St. Louis Cardinals unveiled their baby blue alternate jerseys with the young Harrison Bader trouting out as the first player to publicly wear them. There was a bit of chatter and curiosity at the time about how the Cardinals picked Bader after the unheralded prospect put up an average offensive year with his signature defense in his first year as a regular player.
My biggest conclusion from this and the Bader-centric offseason marketing of last winter is that Bader was part of the Cardinals’ longterm plans.