James Shields Sweepstakes: Do St. Louis Cardinals have interest in free agent?

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While today may be National Signing Day for college football, there’s talk of free agent pitcher James Shields signing by the end of the week, maybe even with the St. Louis Cardinals.

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It seems like free agency season is dragging on and on each year with some signings not even happening until the middle of spring training. Remember Kyle Lohse? He wasn’t the only free agent to have signed very late.

But back to Shields, if the Cardinals are indeed linked to him again, as USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale suggests on Twitter, it says that the organization is either concerned about Adam Wainwright‘s elbow, Michael Wacha‘s shoulder, or they don’t trust either Marco Gonzales or Carlos Martinez in the starting rotation early in the 2015 season. I’m not saying that it’s any one of these players.

The New York Yankees are said to be “actively pursuing” the free agent pitcher according to Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi. The Yankees, ultimately, may be where Shields ends up. I just don’t see where Shields is a good fit for the Cardinals pitching rotation with Wainwright, Wacha, Lance Lynn, John Lackey and the Gonzales/Martinez combo.

Those in the baseball media have linked the Cardinals to Jon Lester and Max Scherzer in the past, not to mention both left-handed pitchers David Price and Cole Hamels. General manager John Mozeliak had said earlier in the offseason that the team might have an interest in obtaining another starting pitcher but also said that it would depend on the market. His tune changed a few weeks ago during Winter Warm-Up by saying that the Cardinals were not looking for a pitcher.

Some of this could be GM-speak in that Mozeliak doesn’t want other teams to know what the club is thinking. We’ll find out for sure this week if reports are correct.