{"id":681131,"date":"2026-04-22T15:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:42:29","slug":"cardinals-were-lucky-to-miss-on-austin-hays-after-rumored-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681131\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Were Lucky to Miss on Austin Hays After Rumored Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">There was a time throughout this past offseason in which the St. Louis Cardinals were connected to a handful of different outfielders.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">With Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras out the door, the Cardinals needed another righty bat to try to balance the lineup. With Lars Nootbaar recovering from offseason heel surgery, St. Louis specifically needed a boost in the outfield. Naturally, this led to a lot of chatter around right-handed bats who were available and could play in the outfield. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">One name that popped up was veteran outfielder and former All-Star Austin Hays.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">The Cardinals were among a group with the New York Mets and New York Yankees who &#8220;maintained contact&#8221; with Hays in free agency, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2013718524397494486?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Heyman of the New York Post. <\/a>While this is the case, the Cardinals missed out on him because they could not offer him a guaranteed, consistent role, per Derrick Goold of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/sports\/professional\/mlb\/cardinals\/article_b8ff6462-7bfc-4fb5-bc49-a83c6b7baae1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> St. Louis Post-Dispatch. <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals Avoided A Mistake<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kptr2x5xaj8naq6cwx.jpg\" alt=\"Chicago White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami (5) celebrates with left fielder Austin Hays\" title=\"Chicago White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami (5) celebrates with left fielder Austin Hays\" width=\"4200\" height=\"2362\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"77\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 4, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami (5) celebrates with left fielder Austin Hays (21) after hitting a two-run home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the sixth inning at Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">&#8220;All offseason, the Cardinals had one eye on the outfielder\/designated hitter\/first base market for a right-handed option to add to a left-leaning group,&#8221; Goold wrote. &#8220;They had interest in Austin Hays, according to sources, but could not offer him the chance to be a starter or that kind of playing time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">Ultimately, Hays signed with the Chicago White Sox and this was actually a good thing for St. Louis. Hays has played in just nine games so far this season and is slashing .219\/.242\/.344 with one homer and six RBIs. That&#8217;s certainly not a lot of production. He landed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/20166\/austin-hays\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one-year, $6 million deal<\/a> to join the White Sox. That&#8217;s not a ton of cash in the grand scheme of things when it comes to Major League Baseball. But the Cardinals avoided an expense for a player who has struggled so far early in the season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">The Cardinals aren&#8217;t necessarily getting the production they need out of left field right now, but there are options down in the minors who could help at some point in Joshua B\u00e1ez and Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez, without handing out a $6 million contract. All in all, the Cardinals dodged a tough deal here and are better for it. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">Right now, the Cardinals are 14-9 on the season and are tied for second place in the National League Central with the Chicago Cubs. Both St. Louis and Chicago are 1 1\/2 games behind the Cincinnati Reds for the top spot. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time throughout this past offseason in which the St. Louis Cardinals were connected to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-681131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116449126466566153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}