St. Louis Cardinals: Four offseason scenarios for the Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot of work to do this winter. From needing to sure up the bullpen, to adding an impact bat, and potentially adding depth to the starting rotation. There seem to be four impact bat scenarios floating around and each seem to be beneficial.

For the sake of sounding repetitive, let’s skip the in-depth analysis of what the St. Louis Cardinals need. I feel like every article I come across addresses what they need and how Mo needs to get it done.

Instead, let’s discuss actual solutions. To me, there are four scenarios the St. Louis Cardinals should explore and if one of them don;t get done, we are probably going into 2018 with Marcell Ozuna as the biggest threat.

Scenario One

Signing Bryce Harper. Honestly, what use to be a dream seems like more of a reality these days, doesn’t it?

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The Cardinals have money and anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know what they are talking about. Last year at this time they were willing to trade for Giancarlo Stanton and take on his huge salary of $325,000,000. I imagine Harper’s contract would be around this.

Signing Harper for near this amount over 10-12 years is no different than taking on Stanton’s contract via trade with Miami, which they were willing to do had Stanton not denied a trade to St. Louis. This alone tells us one thing – the money is there.

Signing Harper not only solidifies the middle of the lineup – it also gives the Cardinals the opportunity to use Ozuna or Tyler O’Neill as a trade chip for pitching.

There is no reason the Cardinals should not make the best offer Harper receives. If he still turns that down, then okay. They tried. Bryce Harper would bring new life to St. Louis Cardinals baseball that has been missing for quite sometime.

To the front office – there is no doubt this man would be an investment for your team. You’d make your money back and then some in no time.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot of work to do this winter. From needing to sure up the bullpen, to adding an impact bat, and potentially adding depth to the starting rotation. There seem to be four impact bat scenarios floating around and each seem to be beneficial.

Scenario Two

Signing Josh Donaldson. This keeps resurfacing and seems like a very Cardinal move. I just can’t get on board.

It’s not because I think Donaldson isn’t a god player – I do. You just don’t know what you are going to get.

Will he play more than 50 games? 100 games? 120? 140? In 2019 he will be 33.

This is the cheapest way out for the Cardinals to still say they did something this winter. I honestly think it would back fire. I’d love to see Donaldson have a bounce back year.

I’d just love to see it even more on a different team with Bryce Harper in our right field.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot of work to do this winter. From needing to sure up the bullpen, to adding an impact bat, and potentially adding depth to the starting rotation. There seem to be four impact bat scenarios floating around and each seem to be beneficial.

Scenario Three

Trading for Paul Goldschmidt. Trading for Goldschmidt is good in theory and we’d all probably still be more than happy with it.

However, there are a couple things to consider.

1. Goldschmidt is in his final year of his contract. He would be expensive to trade for and there’s no guarantee they would be able to resign him.
2. Almost certainly trading for Goldschmidt would also mean taking on Zack Greinke. While this helps bring depth to the pitching staff – Greinke would be 35 and still contracted through 2021 being owed $31.5M, $32M, and $32M in each of those seasons.

While both men would be great additions for 2019; the future with them is very unclear.