St. Louis Cardinals likely to transition offseason plans

The St. Louis Cardinals recently lost out Jason Heyward, will they be making any other moves this offseason?

According to a recent article by Derrick Goold, where he interviews GM John Mozeliak on the St. Louis Cardinals’ offseason misses, the Cardinals will not be looking to make any splashes in the free agent market any time soon.

As, Dan Buffa told you earlier, they are not interested in Justin Upton if he is indeed looking for a nine figure deal, and linking them to Alex Gordon is simply “connecting the dots and not connecting the facts” according to John Mozeliak.

Right now, you’re frustrated. The Cardinals have lost out on the two biggest free agents out on the market and are now they are talking about going to spring training with this current group of players. This is despite rumors and reports that the Cardinals were going to be the big spenders of the offseason. The Cardinals have now changed their tune and do not plan on aggressively approaching the market.

According to Goold, the team came into the offseason with the goal of signing Jason Heyward and David Price, as well as the move for Jedd Gyrko and the signing for Brayan Pena. The team came into the offseason with a goal, and they partially missed on said goal. Mozeliak has spoke at length about how the team does not make “reactionary moves”.

You are probably thinking, “Hey so much for all of that payroll muscle they were supposed to be using this offseason!”

But, the club had two players in which they were comfortable unloading a bunch of money on and they tried to do so and it didn’t work out. The Cardinals’ front office has been one of the most shrewd front offices in all of Major League Baseball for a long time, it’s why this team has the money it has. They didn’t get there by buying every free agent available.

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The club is prepared to stand pat and not overpay in this true “player’s market”, every single player remaining in the OF has questions about their ability to even play RF or CF for that matter, let alone performing at or above the level they’ve been performing at offensively. The Cardinals have four good options remaining in the OF in Matt Holliday, Stephen Piscotty, Randal Grichuk, and Tommy Pham.

Two of which can play all three positions. The three remaining top tier FA OF are all LF and are best when playing LF. So, can you blame the Cardinals for wanting to stay put and wanting to sign a guy long term who is in a spot that currently is occupied by Matt Holliday and will be occupied by Stephen Piscotty in a year?

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It’s no secret the Cardinals prefer building from within. The high end talent is extremely lacking in the upper minor leagues for the Cardinals and it unfortunately boasts nobody that the Cardinals could plug in right away in the first base position or the outfield.

Since 2010 the Cardinals have traded away quite a bit of their in house talent. Yes the Cardinals’ are making money and quite a bit of it. However, they are smart and know that not many “offseason winners” actually win in the regular season.

I strongly believe that this is the right thing to do, this will set the club up to extend Michael Wacha, Stephen Piscotty, Randal Grichuk, and Carlos Martinez over the next few years. This is the smart move for the team, and it sets them up for long term success, as opposed to success in the short term and being tied up with long term contracts for aging players. 

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This team might and note I said “might” experience a slight decline in terms of wins this year, but there’s no reason to believe that they will roll over and finish third or worse in this division, as some suggest.