St. Louis Cardinals: Eyeing Leftover Free Agents

Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

I had a dream last night that somewhere in the bowels of Busch II, St. Louis Cardinals general manager was hard at work on a huge multi-player trade with the Brewers and/or Reds. Then I woke up.

The reality is that the St. Louis Cardinals may not have the talent it needs to pull off such a deal. We don’t have a Dansby Swanson type we could package with a fringy big leaguer to get Jonathan Lucroy or Joey Votto. Although I argued yesterday here and here that, given what the White Sox gave up to get third baseman Todd Frazier this week, the cost may not be high at all.

But if this offseason has taught me anything, it’s to be a pessimist. At least then I can save myself from the sting of bitter disappointment.

Apparently, the St. Louis Cardinals still have money to spend. I’ll let Yahoo! Sports’ Big League Stew play the optimist here:

"If there’s a silver lining though, it’s that this free-agent class is deep and several good options remain. The Cardinals aren’t in a terrible spot by any means. In fact, they’re in a position similar to the Cubs before they splurged on Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward. They still have plenty of the money to spend, and can be creative in how they spread it around. Perhaps they’ll even end up getting more bang for their buck with multiple cost efficient signings."

Yeah, maybe. Maybe if they sign one or more of these five players, I’ll pull out of this long, cold winter of my discontent. Check them out …

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