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

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.