Looking at the Cardinals top January moves since 2000

January 2010 - 2019 transactions

Matt Holliday: January 7, 2010 - 7 year, $120 million free agent

After acquiring Matt Holliday from the Athletics at the 2009 trade deadline, the slugger took off in his 63-game sample with the Cardinals. Holliday finished the season on a tear, hitting .353 with 13 homers and 55 RBIs as the team cruised to an NL Central Division title. There was never really a doubt that he would be back with the Cardinals after the season and the team rewarded the superstar with a 7-year, $120 million contract which still stands as the organization's largest contract given to a free agent.

So how good was Holliday during his seven-year stint? The outfielder was named to four All-Star teams, won a Silver Slugger award, and showed up on the MVP ballot four separate times. In six of those seasons, Holliday hit at least 20 homers and tallied a batting average of .270 or higher. All told, the righty totaled 156 homers and a 138 OPS+ for a team that was continuing to search for a replacement for Albert Pujols in the middle of the order after the 2011 season. Of course, any Matt Holliday and Cardinal career report would be incomplete without mentioning what had to be one of the best moments of his career that culminated in a red jacket among the Cardinal greats. In a memory that still brings emotions to this day, Holliday's final at-bat at Busch Stadium ended with the normally stone-faced outfielder in tears as he rounded the bases after his pinch-hit home run.

Lance Lynn: January 15, 2015 - 3 year, $23.5 million arbitration extension

Lance Lynn was a first-round draft pick by the Cardinals in the 2008 draft and worked his way through the minor leagues as a starter before following the Adam Wainwright route and made his Major League debut for the Cardinals as a reliever in the 2011 season. After a successful run out of the bullpen, the team stuck to the plan to have Lynn fill out the rotation in 2012 and the results were spectacular. As a 25-year-old, the righty put together an 18-7 season and was named to his first All-Star game in Kansas City. Lynn showed his workhorse capabilities that year, taking the ball 35 times, 29 of which were starts, and covered 176 innings for the eventual NLDS champions. He built off that strong season and continued to provide above-average results, going 15-10 each of the next two seasons with his 2014 season being his best as he put up a 2.74 ERA in 203.2 innings.

While he never possessed elite strikeout stuff, Lynn's ability to use his fastball in different ways made him an intimidating presence on the mound who was never afraid to go after hitters. The Cardinals rewarded their young workhorse after the 2014 season by buying out his remaining arbitration years to the tune of a 3-year, $23.5 million extension. His 2015 record left some to be desired at 12-11, but as the pitching win stat has started to become less important, Lynn continued to provide value with 31 starts and a 3.03 ERA and a 3.0 fWAR. Unfortunately, the high workload seemed to catch up with him and he missed the entire 2016 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Despite the lost time, Lynn came back strong in 2017 and pitched the entire season with a league-high 33 starts. The team underperformed as a whole that year and Lynn's first St. Louis stint ended after that year and he bounced around to five different organizations before making his return to Busch Stadium on a one-year deal last season.

Seunghwan Oh: January 11, 2016 - 1 year, $2.5 million free agent plus a club option.

After a phenomenal career in Korea and Japan, "The Final Boss" Seunghwan Oh finally made the move stateside on a $2.5 million contract. Organizations including the Cardinals had been scouting Oh for at least seven years prior before the signing. At age 33, the Cardinals were hoping to receive a quality stopper at the back end of the bullpen to help set up stifling reliever Trevor Rosenthal, who was just coming off a then club-record 48 save season. Well, they received that and then some.

Rosenthal had a mix of struggles and injuries during the 2016 season that pushed Oh from his normal late-inning role directly into the closer job. The righty from South Korea took the new role and ran with it as he dominated Major League hitters over his 76 appearances. Covering 79.2 innings, Oh tallied an elite 1.92 ERA (212 ERA+) with 103 strikeouts against only 18 walks. At the end of the year, he finished with 19 saves and a sixth-place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting.

After that strong debut season, the team made the obvious decision to pick up his club option and retain him for the 2017 season. While his results were not near as dominant, he totaled 20 saves for the near-.500 Cardinal team. The organization did not try to re-sign Oh during the next offseason and the righty bounced between Toronto and Colorado for the next two seasons. He never matched his 2016 rookie year but still put together a solid MLB career before heading back to the KBO where he has been since the 2020 season.