Why the St. Louis Cardinals should sign Jake Odorizzi

The St. Louis Cardinals should sign free-agent pitcher Jake Odorizzi.

The expectation remains that the St. Louis Cardinals are done making big additions this winter. After all, the team added Nolan Arenado, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, three players making sizeable money in 2021.

But the longer that Jake Odorizzi remains on the market, the lower his price likely will be. And if he continues to sit on the market, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak should pounce on an opportunity that could bring the Cardinals even closer to the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the National League.

Odorizzi, 30, would solidify a rotation that has increased question marks. They entered spring training with limited depth even after bringing back Wainwright, hoping that their in-house options would step up and eat quality innings. But Miles Mikolas was recently scratched from pitching in a simulation game, though he is now scripted to throw in a side session this weekend, manager Mike Shildt told reporters, including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

It underscores just how fragile the Cardinals current rotation is and how another arm — especially one of the caliber of Odorizzi — would upgrade their pitching staff and give it the depth it needs. There are arms in the minors that the team could use, such as Matthew Liberatore, but the Cardinals may not have the numbers to successfully make the jump from a 60 to 162-game season.

Adding Odorizzi, who has a 3.88 ERA in 991.2 innings from 2014-2019, would not be cheap. He is likely to get a multi-year deal north of $10-12 million annually. If the Cardinals have additional money to spend, and want to ensure they are in the same class as the Padres and Dodgers, they should do everything they can to sign Odorizzi.

The state of their rotation, and perhaps their season, would seem to depend on it.