Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak holds Press Conference

St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak held a press conference this morning to announce the free agent signing of shortstop Jhonny Peralta.
Oct 9, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak looks on before game five of the National League divisional series playoff baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. Image Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
The shortstop market was not one that was deep in free agents and Mo wanted to focus on someone that can hit from the right side.

Mo did explore trades but the costs to acquire a shortstop were too high. Mo did meet with Peralta and his representatives during the GM meetings but things progressed over the weekend to where there were no issues in signing.

Peralta wanted to be a Cardinal and things worked out nicely in the end.

Mo said that if the clock were to have stopped today, he “would be happy” with how the team looks.

On the question of PED use, he admitted what he did and took responsibility but the Cards don’t have a responsibility to be a moral police when it comes to future employment. If Peralta makes another mistake, Mo would be disappointed by Mo has a high level of confidence that this event is a one-time only thing. Mo says that it’s up to the MLBPA to get stricter penalties when it comes to violations of the Joint Drug Agreement. As far as Mo is concerned, the team is better and they are playing by the rules as they are.

To put it simply, if the MLBPA wanted it to be harder for PED violators, they would need to change the current JDA in place.

For Mo, two years in the deal would have made more sense but four years was driven by the market and the club is flexible with payroll. Mo doesn’t want to answer the question today but believes he can play for four years at the position.

Defensively, Kozma is better but Peralta has the offensive upside.

As far as the lineup goes, manager Mike Matheny has more to work with.

Mo was not really concerned about giving up a draft pick but was not concerned with losing a draft pick. He added that he values the extra draft picks.