The St. Louis Cardinals traded former World Series MVP David Freese to the Los Angeles Angels on Friday. The Freese trade was in exchange for center fielder Peter Bourjos.
In addition to Bourjos, the Cardinals will also get outfield prospect Randal Grichuk. The Angels will get reliever Fernando Salas along with Freese. Freese will be reunited with former Cardinals teammate and current Angels player Albert Pujols. Freese and Pujols were part of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, who won the World Series that year. The move is emotional for Freese who is a St. Louis native.
"It's bittersweet -- closing the chapter in my hometown," Freese said about leaving his hometown. If it was going to go down I wanted to go to a team like the Angels."
Freese will fill the gap that the Angels have at third base. The Cardinals could move Matt Carpenter to third base and have rookie Kolten Wong at second base, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Cardinals will be in control of Bourjos for the next three years. Bourjos, an elite centerfielder, hit .274 with a .333 on-base percentage and a .710 OPS.
This year Freese hit .262 with nine homeruns and 60 RBIs. That’s down from his career best of 20 homeruns, 79 RBIs and a .293 average, which happened the previous year, according to the Associated Press. During the postseason Freese hit .179 with no RBIs.
With Freese being reunited with Pujols, it will be interesting to see if they can lead the Angels to the World Series like they did with the Cardinals in 2011.