St. Louis Cardinals: Diamond in the Rough Free Agent Targets

The St. Louis Cardinals are likely to be bargain shoppers in free agency. Here are a few low-cost options that they might pursue.

The 2020 offseason is going to put the front office of the St. Louis Cardinals in a precarious position.  The decision will be a tough one to go all-in with one last ride for Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright while the division seems to be faltering, or whether to save money and look toward the future.

We can all agree that the 2020 season was a year that we can all hope to forget (unless you are Dodgers fans).  With the shortened season and the uncertainty of the protocols, it makes it harder than ever to evaluate impending free agents. But even with the shortened season, teams must make the financial commitments to improve their team for the upcoming years.  While knowing and understanding that the Cardinals would like to save as much money as possible, we are going to look at some free agents who will not cost the Cardinals an arm and a leg but will hopefully produce like a top free agent.  Since we all now know that owning a baseball team “isn’t very profitable” we will be careful not to include free agent targets that will be unrealistic to this team.

The next player who I believe will come at essentially no cost while hoping to return to form is Eric Thames. In the past offseason, the Washington Nationals hoped to bring in any sort of offensive threat to offset the departure of Anthony Rendon. In doing that, they brought in Thames along with others. You many know Thames as the Milwaukee Brewers slugger with the biggest forearms baseball has seen since Matt Holliday. While he did struggle in the 2020 campaign, it was also a shortened season (small sample size). Even then, he did manage to finish in the 84th percentile in hard-hit percentage. For a team that finished the 2020 season 25th in that category, it is clear that is something that needs to be addressed. Thames seems to be the type of person who will succeed if you put him in the right scenario. He has also been known to play corner outfield so along with playing first base, he could be someone who could play in the outfield when you cannot keep his bat out of the lineup. He is someone who could absolutely be a huge factor for a team in the market for a cheap power hitting role player.

Thames is only a couple years removed from being an elite power hitter. He is still capable of being an quality bounce back candidate if you do keep him in his lane and put him in the correct situations. No, Thames is not an everyday player and probably will not be paid to be. But Thames is someone who can bring elite power and run creating ability by his ability to go deep anywhere at anytime.

Last player I would like to discuss is my favorite bargain free agent on the market: Garrett Richards.  Richards spent his 2020 campaign in San Diego playing for the young and exciting Padres. You might remember Richards from pitching against the Cardinals in the Wild Card Series this past year in two of the three games. Richards has an exuberant delivery that is fun and is addicting to watch. He sports an elite fastball and curveball.  You may look at some of his stats from previous years and wonder why I am so excited about him. While coming up with the Angels, Angels fans were excited for this pitcher because of his overpowering fastball complimented by his devastating breaking ball. I think Richards can be an elite reliever/spot starter.  In the 2020 campaign, Richards did finish the year in the 99th percentile in curveball spin and in the 97th percentile in fastball spin. Once converted to a reliever late in the 2020 season, the Padres knew they had an elite threat out of the bullpen.  I think that it is just the beginning of an era for Garrett Richards, he may be 33 years old already but I believe he may be hitting a second wind in his career as a late inning reliever (see: Wade Davis). The Cardinals are in need of people who have the capability to pitch multiple innings while also having a veteran presence in the bullpen. I believe that Richards is the perfect fit.