St. Louis Cardinals: Time to give the front office some praise

The St. Louis Cardinals off-season has come and gone and it’s time to give credit where credit is due.

When the 2018 off-season began St. Louis Cardinals fans were full of hope. The rumors about Giancarlo Stanton created a palpable buzz throughout Cardinal Nation that hadn’t been felt in a while. It felt like a match with Stanton was inevitable. The team had the money and the prospects. What could go wrong? It took weeks for the culmination of a Stanton trade to happen and in the end he didn’t want to be a Cardinal. This changed the entire outlook of the off-season and the front office responded accordingly.

John Mozeliak and Mike Girsch had one of the toughest jobs of their careers this offseason. They had to find ways to improve a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in two seasons with a free agent class that was fairly top-heavy. Unfortunately for them, the best players available didn’t exactly fit the mold of what they needed. It wasn’t long until the front office pivoted and made a move after Stanton’s refusal and thus began the most interesting St. Louis Cardinals off-season in quite some time.

Adding Marcell Ozuna was essentially a no brainer. He is a power hitting, Gold Glove winner on a team looking to move pieces. The turnaround was fairly quick, not long after Stanton’s refusal to come to St. Louis (or San Francisco), the Cardinals agreed to terms with the Miami Marlins to bring Ozuna to the Midwest. Most importantly in this deal, the Cardinals didn’t have to touch any of their top guys to acquire him. Holding onto the likes of Alex Reyes, Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty were key parts to this team’s future and the front office made it happen.

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With Ozuna in the fold, the team had to take care of the logjam in their outfield. In the coming weeks the Cardinals would move Stephen Piscotty to the Oakland A’s and Randal Grichuk to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Without focusing on the obvious benefit the deal had for Piscotty, which remains one of the best moments of the off-season, the return for the St. Louis Cardinals was perfect.

Acquiring Yairo Munoz and Max Schrock helped the team provide a bit more depth to a position they had practically none. Through the course of Spring Training, Yairo Munoz would show his versatility and bat would be great additions to the big league club.

Munoz would end up beating out the favorite for the final roster spot, Harrison Bader.

Max Schrock struggled with an injury for a good portion of the spring. This limited his ability to make much of an impact, but the upside for him is high. While losing Stephen Piscotty was upsetting to a good portion of the fan base, this move was by far the best option for both Piscotty and the team.

Moving Grichuk provided a different return for the St. Louis Cardinals. This time it was pitching. In return, the Cardinals received two pitchers, Dominic Leone and Conner Greene. Leone made quite the name for himself and up until a few days ago was expected to be the Cardinals closer to some extent to start the year. Leone was fantastic in the spring and while he won’t be closing games he will have a large effect on a revamped bullpen.

Conner Greene is another high upside guy for the Cardinals to try to develop. Greene is a flamethrower; his fast ball, by far his best pitch, sits high 90s with decent movement. The problem for Greene is twofold: lack of control and not terribly impressive secondary pitches. Greene is a project but in the right situation and under the right tutelage could thrive. He’s still only 23 so he has plenty of time to get things right and potentially have an effect at the big league level.

The Cardinals made their mark this off-season in the trade market, acquiring Ozuna, Munoz, Schrock, Leone and Greene all through trades. This of course isn’t the way they added to the roster. In an attempt to help bolster a bullpen that was in a word, disappointing last season, the team signed Luke Gregerson. At the time of his signing Gregerson looked like just a piece of the puzzle. After some time, it looked more and more clear; Gregerson would be this team’s Opening Day closer.

Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly taken well by Cardinal fans. The team’s clear need was bullpen and there were options. Settling on Gregerson as the closer seemed like a real disappointing move. Unfortunately for him, injuries limited his spring and forced him to start the year on the disabled list. The closer role would have to be filled by someone else.

The team made three more additions through free agency. Two of those have real question marks. The additions of Bud Norris and Miles Mikolas were at the very least puzzling to Cardinal fans. Mikolas was not a household name; he had started his career in Texas but decided to go to Japan for a fresh start in baseball.

The Cardinals clearly liked what they saw in Mikolas, offering him a two-year deal to return to the majors. While his return to baseball in the states didn’t start out swimmingly, Mikolas did appear to settle in nicely as the spring wore on. If Mikolas can pan out and be an effective back-end starter, the 15.5 million he receives over the next two years will look like a bargain compared to the market for starting pitching.

The Bud Norris signing seemed a bit more confusing and to this day still perplexes fans. Norris, the former “Cardinal Killer” had seen his career hit the skids. He seemed to find himself a bit in the bullpen for the Los Angeles Angels, but an injury cut that short. Now Norris will have a role in the Cardinals bullpen. Where he will be looking to rediscover the form he had earlier in his career.

The Norris signing seems to be the signing that drove Cardinal fans nuts, understandably. The team let Juan Nicasio, someone fans had just seen have success in the bullpen walk and signed a guy who looked like he was nearing the end. Whether or not Norris succeeds with the team remains to be seen, but he was a very cheap option, one that the team could realistically move on from with no qualms if things go poorly.

This leads us to Opening Day. With real baseball finally back, the off-season and spring were in the rearview, or so we thought. A couple of hours before first pitch the team announced they were in talks with Greg Holland. Less than thirty minutes later, a deal was in place. This was completely shocking to say the least.

The front office had finally provided this team with its go to closer; no closer by committee or going with the hot hand. The Cardinals now had a guy who has 40 plus saves in three of his last four seasons. This would give Mike Matheny and Mike Maddux a solidified 9th and the ability to pick and choose where the rest of the pieces would fit.

Now of course there are detractors to the signing. Aren’t there always? To this point the complaints have been: Why not stick with the bullpen you have instead of wasting money on Holland for one year? Why not let Jordan Hicks just close if he’s supposedly the future? Why didn’t you sign Holland sooner?

To those that find fault in the deal, here is a quick rundown to answer your questions. First and foremost, there is no such thing as a bad one year deal. It is off the books next year and you can spend it however you like. Holland will use this year as a reminder to the rest of the league he deserves a longer contract. The 14 million he is getting paid will have no effect outside of this season.

For the Jordan Hicks for closer crowd, let the kid develop. The team signing Greg Holland as closer changes nothing for Jordan Hicks’ future as the potential closer. Hicks will get to spend his age 21 season getting a feel for the majors and getting to work under a very good closer. That can do nothing but help him in the long run.

As for the timing of the Holland signing, yes it was odd. It isn’t too often you see a team make a major signing just hours before their season officially starts. But this is where you have to give credit where credit is due. Mozeliak and Girsch basically showed off a master class in free agency with this one. Of course the off-season as a whole helped them quite a bit.

Going into the off-season Holland was looking for big money. He even turned down a fairly lucrative offer from the Colorado Rockies. Scott Boras wanted more for his client. In the end, the Cardinals only had to pay 14 million dollars for his services. Fourteen million is less than the qualifying offer, less than the Rockies offer and less than the other top closer (Wade Davis) got on the market. In the grand scheme, this was a steal.

After that lengthy recap of the off-season, it’s finally time to get to the point of this piece. It’s time for Cardinal fans to give the front office some credit. It’s time for people to give Mo and Girsch some love. The front office did exactly what fans wanted; put together a contender. That’s what they did. This team is better off today than they were on the last day of the 2017 season, far better off.

There are still those that say the team should have added a more top-tier starting pitcher to the ranks. Sure, that is an argument that could be made, but why potentially block an Alex Reyes or a Jack Flaherty. These guys are close, very close, and keeping a path open to the majors for them will be important.

Next: Cards sign Holland

So as I said before, it’s time we give the front office some credit. They deserve some appreciation for what they were able to do. In a time where teams are very obviously “tanking” the Cardinals got better. Mo and Girsch put this team in a position to compete and they didn’t have to sell the farm to do it. There’s really not much more a fan base could ask for.

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The St. Louis Cardinals off-season has come and gone and it’s time to give credit where credit is due.

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