Cardinals News: Day 2 of Winter Meetings brings big rumors

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the thick of some of the biggest stories at the Winter Meetings

For those who expected the St. Louis Cardinals to be passive this Winter Meetings, all indications are pointing toward them being a major player this week. From their active involvement in discussions for a new starting catcher, to potentially going after a big name shortstop, there appears to be a lot on the radar of John Mozeliak and company.

If you have been following the headlines or Twitter today, there has been a lot of speculation and reporting going on from both national and local media alike. Here is a roundup on today’s news and reports, and what to expect for the rest of the Winter Meetings for St. Louis.

Cardinals are going hard for Sean Murphy, keeping other options open

Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy is the best catcher available this off-season, and the Cardinals appeared to have zeroed in on Murphy as their guy, per both Derrick Goold and national media.

Murphy is the perfect fit for the Cardinals. The team would love to upgrade their offense at the position, but also still value having a stable, defensive presence behind the plate. Murphy is one of the few catchers in baseball who do both at a high level, which would make him a huge get for St. Louis if they are able to pull off a deal. I detailed out why Sean Murphy should be their number one target a few days ago.

As I speculated in my predictions for the Winter Meetings, the Cardinals are aiming to leave San Diego with a new starting catcher, but are still going to look to make the best deal possible, per Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Other options that the Cardinals have been linked to on the trade front include the Toronto Blue Jays’ trio of catchers and New York Mets’ James McCann. On the free agent side of things, Christian Vazquez and Willson Contreras remain in play, but the Cardinals also face a lot of competition for their services as well.

Although catcher is their biggest need, the hottest news comes from the growing buzz about the Cardinals and the free agent shortstops.

National and local media are linking the Cardinals to an upgrade at shortstop

The speculation about the Cardinals involvement in the shortstop market began around noon on Monday when Jon Morosi went on MLB Network and connected the Cardinals to the shortstops, later tweeting out that sources had been indicating that they are active.

While some fans and pundits had some speculation about the nature of their involvement, it was later confirmed by Derrick Goold that there were scenarios where Dansby Swanson would be a target for St. Louis.

So, what’s the deal here? Basically, it sounds like sources around the industry are noticing that the Cardinals have increased interest in the shortstops, specifically Swanson, although Xander Bogaerts could be a possibility as well. As has been said many times this off-season, their interest in a shortstop is complicated, as it depends on how other things shake out, namely catcher.

I personally think signing Swanson would be a mistake for the Cardinals, and wrote about it recently. For fans who are hopeful the Cardinals make a splash with one of the shortstops, MLB Network and others spent a lot of today discussing how a major move at the position would make a lot of sense for St. Louis if they truly wish to contend for the World Series in 2023.

The rest of the Winter Meetings should bring some clarity to this situation, and hopefully even resolution, one way or the other. It feels like we have been talking about the shortstop market for ages now, and there was another piece of news, specifically related to a current Cardinal shortstop, that remains interesting this off-season.

John Mozeliak digs his heels in on the Cardinals keeping Paul DeJong

These comments may trigger fans, but please continue reading after I give some context to why I believe John Mozeliak made the following comments about Paul DeJong today.

Let’s address the DeJong comment first. Some see the idea that a team would be calling about DeJong and think that Mozeliak should have traded him in a heartbeat. Three things need to be noted here.

1. Teams that were calling were likely wanting the Cardinals to eat most of DeJong’s contract, or even attach a prospect to him.
2. Assuming that is the case, it does not make sense for the Cardinals to move on from DeJong before Spring Training. It does not hurt the club to see how he performs this spring. If he is still struggling, then they will cut bait. If he turns it around, then there are not wasting $9 million just sending him away, or could even get some value in a trade.
3. If a team does come calling with an offer to take on most of DeJong’s money or even a decent return, Mozeliak likely takes that offer.

Long story short, this appears to be good business on the part of Mozeliak, as he is maintaining as much leverage as possible on DeJong. If things go poorly this spring, he’ll be off the roster before Opening Day.

A note on John Mozeliak’s ‘unequivocal’ stance on the Cardinals’ shortstops

John Mozeliak has been pretty consistent in his stance on Tommy Edman being the starting shortstop for St. Louis in 2023. But let me remind you that Mozeliak said on radio that Matt Carpenter was the starting third baseman on the morning of January 29th, 2021, and then traded for Nolan Arenado later that evening.

This doesn’t mean that every time Mozeliak is lying in saying that Edman is their starting shortstop, but I would not believe that they are not thinking long and hard about moving Edman to second base to bring in a star shortstop. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and there is a lot of smoke with the Cardinals pursuit of a shortstop right now.