How Big of a Loss is Rafael Furcal

The Cardinals’ starting shortstop Rafael Furcal, has injured his elbow to the point of possibly needing surgery to repair his Ulnar Collateral Ligament.  The Cardinals will obviously miss his switch hitting bat at the top or as recently bottom of the order in addition to his above average defense with the glove and what used to be at least a very strong throwing arm.  He is the kind of veteran player who was key to the Cardinals playoff run last season due to his glove alone and was a major reason for their hot start this season.  There is no debating that Furcal has been important to the Cardinals so far this season, but what the Cardinals’ staff needs to figure out going forward is: how big of an impact will his loss have on the team’s chances of defending their World Series Championship?

The players who will be filling in for Furcal as the season continues will be a combination of Pete Kozma, Daniel Descalso, and Ryan Jackson when he is called back up to the Cardinals.  Although the two guys who have come up from the minor leagues will probably get their chances, Descalso seems to be the most obvious substitute for most games.  While this will mean that the Cardinals have less experience and slightly less range from the shortstop position, Descalso’s solid glove could play very well as the man in the center of all the action.  Descalso is definitely willing and able to offer similar solid defense like they were getting from Furcal.

Offensively, it is difficult to really tell how much the Cardinals will be losing with the loss of Furcal who had been hitting .239 since after the All Star break.  Descalso is not offering much more offensively with his .217 batting average for the season and .207 after the All Star break.  While obviously this is a drop off from Furcal’s numbers, neither guy is someone I would want up with the game on the line needing a big hit.  At least Furcal had the veteran experience that could have been helpful in big situations down the stretch.  Descalso is still an unproven commodity who is definitely known more for his glove than his bat.

But there is definitely a glass half full version of this story at least from the offensive side of things.  For reasons that have been well researched and reported on in the St. Louis press, Descalso had been playing a lot lately instead of Skip Schumaker who is undoubtedly a better hitter than either Descalso or Furcal at this point in the season.  If the loss of Furcal means more playing time at second base for Schumaker, then as odd as it may seem, the loss of Furcal may actually strengthen the Cardinal’s offensive attack.  Skip was already a big part of the win today, and hopefully he can prove to be just as valuable in the coming weeks.  As long as Descalso can cover the defense that Furcal left behind.

So the bottom line is that the loss of Furcal is definitely a blow to the Cardinals.  There is no amount of spin that could make this into a positive for the Cardinals, but there is a way that they could make it through to the end of the season with a clinched playoff spot.  The loss of Furcal is nowhere near as damaging to this team now given his new level of production compared with how he was igniting the offense at the beginning of the season.  Last season, the addition of Furcal was enormous because of the limited defensive abilities of Ryan Theriot.  If the Cardinals can replace this defense, then they just might be able to survive the loss of their starting shortstop.