The St. Louis Cardinals’ thriftiness could pay off

Oct 4, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis (19) hits a two run home run during the eighth inning against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles won 9-4. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Values in free agency

When people go out and think about the word “free agency,” they do not usually think of the term behind the word on which it means/applies towards.  Free agency is for filling holes a team cannot fill internally, like Jhonny Peralta, or signing an impact player like Matt Holliday.  Out of all the ways to acquire a player, free agency provides the least relative to cost.  There are exceptions however.

Matt Holliday for instance has been a tremendous value towards the Cardinals, as has Jhonny Peralta, but those are exceptions.  During this years’ Winter Meetings, the Cardinals front office felt like David Price and Jason Heyward were exceptions as well.

Just because the Cardinals fell short of their goal of signing those two great players, does not mean that the team needs to set their sights lower and still spend a ton of money without making a significant improvement.

Do not get me wrong, there are still plenty of good players left in free agency this offseason. To name a few: Alex Gordon, Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes, and Chris Davis are all good players, however they are all going to be expensive as well, and all of them have likely already played their best baseball.

Next: Are they worth it?