He will start in the majors if they manage to re-sign Holliday. If not, though, they might look towards picking up someone else at 3B in order to help the offense.

I’m not sure there are really any good options in free agency that will provide enough over what Freese can do with the glove and the bat to really be worth the money spent, but then they need to improve the offense SOMEHOW and if they do not get Holliday there will be very few options to do so.

With Figgins off the market there really isn’t much appealing to replace him… Beltre is nice, but Busch Stadium will sap his power in a way very similar to Safeco Field, so his bat probably won’t be much better than Freese’s.

I think after his run at the end of the season they give him a fair shot to be the fifth starter with Pineiro, Smoltz and Wellemeyer packing their bags. I’ve been a Jaime Garcia fan for a while and I think he’d be a solid back end type guy. He won’t strike out a ton of guys (even though he’s done well in the minors), but he gets groundballs. He’ll need to prove he’s got the durability to last a full season though and that will be his hardest task.

And just a few thoughts on some others: I don’t see Ottavino as much more than a AAAA player. He’ll fill an injury/emergency role like Boggs and a few others did this year, but in the end I see him sticking with a team as a Blake Hawksworth type. Lynn is another personal favorite and he just seems like what teams look for in their 3 or 4 starters - an innings eating, strike throwing horse.

Will get some playing time this season… but it’s a huge question of where. His 3B defense isn’t supposed to be very good, 1B is obviously occupied, and he has not really player much LF, so what can they really do with him?