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Scott Boras has always had a flair for impeccable timing. With the St. Louis Cardinals on the verge of clinching the NL Central, the superagent said today that Rick Ankiel, a pending free agent and one of his clients, is unlikely to return to St. Louis in 2010. Given Ankiel's shrinking role in an outfield with Colby Rasmus, Matt Holliday (who the Cardinals will likely push to re-sign), and Ryan Ludwick, this news isn't surprising, though it's always something that could be left unsaid until after the Cards' season ends. Ankiel himself has earned his smaller role, hitting just .235/.287/.395 this season after slugging over .500 in each of his first two seasons as a big league outfielder. Between his poor performance at the plate and all of the injuries he's suffered in the past two years, it's not really surprising that the Cardinals haven't been able to find room for him in the outfield this year.
Still, Ankiel is likely to generate some interest on the open market, even with all of his struggles because as Boras notes, he's a fairly good defensive center fielder with a cannon for an arm and 30-homer potential if he can play a full season. There are already reports that the Pirates are rumored to be interested in the outfielder, though no team can publicly comment on a player until free agency officially begins due to tampering rules.
Of course, it's also possible that this winter's free agent market will move even slower than last winter's due to economic problems facing all of the teams. And while Ankiel's certainly got some promise, he's also going to be 30-years old and he's still something of an unknown because he's really only been hitting for about five years now and he's missed a lot of time to injury. In fact, he's only managed more than 500 plate appearances in one season (2007). Because of that, it seems like there's a pretty good chance that the market that Boras expects for Ankiel won't fully develop and he may end up signing somewhere fairly cheaply when it's all said and done.
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