St. Louis Cardinals Hot Stove: No Price, so what now?

The St. Louis Cardinals have officially lost out on the David Price sweepstakes, so what will they do now?

Well here we are Cardinals’ fans. We have lost out on the pitcher that everyone wanted to get, you’ve seen us advocate for the signing of Price. I have been telling you that it seems like this was going to be a big winter for the Cardinals. However, here we are talking about how they failed to sign one of their top targets of the offseason.

My hope is that we won’t be talking about how they failed to sign Jason Heyward anytime soon. However, looking into this shows that there is not much to worry about here. According to Bob Nightengale, Price was all but sure he was going to be a St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher for the next seven years.

The Cardinals’ made a competitive offer that they felt was going to be good enough to sign Price, and at the last minute were outbid by the Red Sox, who overpay every single offseason on somebody.

As a fan this is frustrating that Price left it up to a bidding war and that the Cardinals’ offer simply wasn’t good enough. I understand he is entitled to his money and this is the pay day he has been waiting for for six years.

But, for a guy who has been on three different teams in the past two seasons, you would think that he would want to be in the most stable situation possible. You would think that $3o million less over seven years would be like splitting hairs for a guy who is going to make the whole amount of his contract likely worth about $25 million per year for the next seven years.

However, the Cardinals set their price and did not go overboard and make an emotional decision. While I think the time is now to get a starting pitcher to add to the mix, there is more than one reason why the Cardinals did not go to the lengths that the Red Sox did to get Price. Yes, it is only $5 million difference, but who knows what Boston would have countered with had the Cardinals matched.

The Cardinals have a farm system stocked full of young pitching arms just itching to get to the big leagues in one of the best franchises in all of baseball. To the fan telling me the Cardinals “need proven starting pitching”, stop it. Was Adam Wainwright proven in 2006? How about Michael Wacha in 2013? Carlos Martinez this past year?

No. The Cardinals know how to develop top pitching talent, and have two guys who can get the job done in Marco Gonzales and Tim Cooney. Both, being in the top of the Cardinal’s top prospects lists for the past two years.

Now, I am not advocating that the Cardinals don’t go after a guy like Mike Leake or explore what the trade market looks like. But, the Cardinal’s needn’t make a knee jerk reaction because the Red Sox outbid them on their first big potential acquisition of the offseason. I am confident that the Cardinals are working on priority #1 of the offseason, that being signing Jason Heyward.

With that said, the stove is officially hot. With the Winter Meetings set to take place next week, look for rumors, signings, and trades to start flying.

Happy Hot Stove season, Cardinals’ fans!