3 players the Cardinals wish they signed last offseason, 1 they are glad they didn't

2 of 3

Much has been made of the St. Louis Cardinals lack of moves this past offseason. Outside of signing Willson Contreras to a five year deal, the team just didn't do all that much to improve their roster. Sure, signing Miles Mikolas an extension is nice and all, but they very clearly didn't do enough to be competitive in 2023.

In fairness, the Cardinals' front office wasn't twiddling their thumbs all offseason. They were definitely interested in trading for Sean Murphy before he ended up with the Braves and St. Louis settled on signing Contreras at catcher. They were mentioned as being interested in signing Dansby Swanson before he signed a long-term deal with the division rival Cubs. They even looked at signing another starting pitcher, although it looks like they may have dodged at least one bullet there.

There are certainly times when the Cardinals made the right choice to pass on players especially given the exorbitant prices we saw in free agency, but there are definitely some players that they missed out on who could have really helped the team in 2023.

Here are some players the St Louis Cardinals wish they signed and one they are glad they didn't

It is difficult to be too hard on the Cardinals' front office as hindsight is always 20/20, but the reality is that this Cardinals team has some real problems. Instead of competing for the division crown like they usually do, they reside at the bottom of a bad division wondering what might have been.

Lets get to the players the Cardinals wished they had signed last offseason and one they are probably glad they avoided.

The Cardinals sure could have used Nathan Eovaldi this year

While other names dominated the press at the top of the starting pitching free agent market last offseason like Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom and Carlos Rodon (more on the latter here in a bit), Nathan Eovaldi was lurking as an intriguing option. Ultimately, he would end up signing with Rangers on a deal that can be worth up to three years and $63 million if he hits all of his incentive targets.

So far, that is looking like an absolute steal for Texas in 2023. In 17 starts this season, Eovaldi has posted a 2.64 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 112.1 innings of work. He is already at 3.1 bWAR in the first half of the season. It isn't an exaggeration to suggest that if the Cardinals had signed him and he did THIS, that this team could be in contention at the top of the division.

Some amount of caution did need to exercised with Eovaldi to be fair. He has a track record of having trouble staying on the field. However, the way the Rangers structured his deal protected the team from giving him that third year unless he hits certain innings requirements for 2023-24. That sure seems like a deal that the Cardinals could have lived with and, frankly, should have offered given how good Eovaldi had been with Boston.

Chris Bassitt would have been a nice signing for the Cardinals last offseason

Lets assume for whatever reason that a guy like Eovaldi was asking for way too much given his injury history and the Cardinals had no interest in doing a short term megadeal for Verlander. They still had another option on the free agent market for a starter in Chris Bassitt. Bassitt has been a steady producer for years and he ended up signing a three year, $63 million deal with Toronto.

Has Bassitt been as good with the Blue Jays in 2023 as he was with Oakland and the Mets? Nope, or at least not yet as his 4.06 ERA has corresponded with a jump in his walk rate this season. However, this is a guy that been basically a mortal lock for a mid-3 ERA for several years now. He wouldn't have had to be an ace to contribute in this Cardinals rotation that has stunk up their season so far and the odds are that he will be a valuable rotation arm for the next few years.

Signing Aroldis Chapman last offseason could have paid off big for the Cardinals

Aroldis Chapman is an understandably polarizing figure in baseball. His fastball is still electric after all these years and he has produced out of the bullpen nearly every season he has been in the league. Unfortunately, he also comes with his fair share of off the field baggage including a domestic violence suspension back in 2015 and an acrimonious departure from the Yankees after he missed a mandatory workout during the postseason.

Chapman would end up signing a one year deal with the Royals last offseason and that deal looks like a heist right now as he has been one of the better relievers in the American League this year. Even if the 2023 season played out exactly the same for the Cardinals as it has so far, having Chapman on the roster as a trade piece that isn't owed a ton of money would have paid huge dividends for them at the deadline. There is also the chance that having Chapman would have allowed the Cardinals to not keep some of these underperforming starters in games quite as long and seen a few close games go their way as a result.

The St Louis Cardinals have to be glad they didn't pay Carlos Rodon

On the plus side, it sure does look like St. Louis made the right choice in not pushing to sign Carlos Rodon. The Cardinals were connected to Rodon at times last offseason which made sense as he was one of the top rotation arms available. However, Rodon ended up deciding on signing a six year deal with the Yankees.

The question with Rodon even going into the offseason was whether or not he would be able to continue to hold up over a long baseball season. The Giants were very careful to manage Rodon's innings during his time there and while the results were tremendous, he did always seem to be a guy that carried with him some injury risk.

As it turns out, that is exactly what has happened. Rodon went down with a strained forearm in spring training and issues with his back. All of that has combined to mean that he has yet to even pitch for the Yankees this year. Sure, he could end up being a fine pitcher with no injury issues the rest of the way. However, with his track record, it is probably a smarter bet that he is going to miss more time over that six year deal of his.

More Cardinals News from Redbird Rants

manual

Home / St Louis Cardinals News