The next St. Louis Cardinals front office needs to address this reoccurring issue

Unfortunately, the trend continued

The 2016 offseason brought Cardinals fans arguably the worst contract in team history. You know who this is. The player who led the Calvary in Chicago to their first World Series win in 108 years. His lead-off home run in Game 7 is hanging in every bar in the Windy City.

Dexter Fowler decided to switch sides in the rivalry by landing a five-year, $82.5 million dollar contract in St. Louis......with a full no-trade clause. The Cardinals lost Jason Heyward the prior season to their arch-rivals who became a clubhouse leader on that World Championship team. The Cardinals decided to pluck the Cubs' now iconic centerfielder as a clap back hoping they can return to playoff contention. Instead, they wasted 82.5 million dollars. One of our prior articles addressed this by saying Fowler was not a total failure in St. Louis. But it did agree that the contract was too long. Are we seeing the trend now?

2017 brought fans the extension of Carlos Martinez. At the time, he was one of the best young arms in the National League, He was an all-star, had already pitched in the World Series, and continued to excel as a starting pitcher. The Cardinals wanted to lock him in on a team-friendly deal and did so on a five-year, $51 million contract.

He started off the extension strong with a great 2017 season and start to 2018. An injury slowed him down in 2018, and he eventually moved to the bullpen. 2019 brought us the closer Carlos Martinez who was a roller coaster on the mound. He either was the best closer in baseball, or he was walking the bases loaded and choking the game away. The rest of his career played out with injuries and controversy and his tenure in St. Louis ended with ERA's above a 6.00 in 2020 and 2021. His career would be over by age 29.

Following an iconic 2018 run, the Cardinals were ready to extend Matt Carpenter. Carpenter changed his game entirely and became one of the more feared sluggers in the National League. Over a full season, Carp had his best season of his career in 2018 where he posted a 143 OPS+ and he got his career high in homers with 36. This was the signature season for the future Cardinals red jacket recipient. The Cardinals agreed to keep Carpenter as a lifelong Cardinal in 2019 and inked him to a two-year deal worth $39 million dollars.

As most of you remember history, it was not kind to fans with this contract. Carp's production fell off a cliff and the Cardinals decided to not bring him back after 2021. It looked to be the end of the road for a once-great Cardinal. Instead, he went berserk in New York and he is somehow still playing. Props to you Matt Carpenter.

2019 also brought Cardinals fans the contract of Andrew Miller. The shutdown postseason horse started to fade in his last season in Cleveland which brought many question marks to his pending free agency. As teams approached with caution, John Mozeliak and brass decided Andrew Miller was their guy. They inked him to a contract that ended up being three years for $37 million. The highly regarded players union player was transcendent with his 2016 playoff run and the Cardinals saw value in both. What they actually got in return was three seasons of 103.2 IP, a 4.34 ERA, and a 4.62 FIP. Fans do not miss the slider that could never land as a strike.

The latest of the bad contracts

Post-COVID in Cardinals Nation did not skip a beat! The Cardinals signed Steven Matz to a four-year, $44 million contract. He had a great 2021 season in Toronto and the Cardinals rolled the dice on his health hoping to repeat that production at a low cost.

Once again, the Cardinals need to avoid gambling. Matz is a frequent rider on the IL and cannot put together a full season as a reliable starter. When he can pitch, it is now as a long reliever due to his lack of performance when healthy. If this was a two-year contract, so be it. But again, long-term contracts continue to hurt Mozeliak and brass.

Are we done yet with recapping the history of premature lengthy contracts? Well, we are still waiting for the results of Willison Contreras' five-year deal that is worth $87.5 million. We are also awaiting the results of Sonny Gray's three-year deal worth $75 million.

It might be too early to make final decisions on if those will be worth the investment. But with the obvious track record here, all hope is gone. Whoever takes the lead in the next Cardinals front office needs to not act reactionary. If a player has one great season before free agency, look at his past first. Is this a fluke year? Or has he been trending in this direction for a while? "Players who want to be here" does not mean you give them full no-trade claused. Offering long-term contracts to play with the average annual value works for teams who are signing stars like the Dodgers. The Cardinals want to operate the same way but this method does not work when signing depth pieces.

There are many issues that need to be addressed and corrected with the next front office. Many areas of improvement might outweigh this trend I have addressed and those might turn this organization around at a much more rapid pace. But the matter is the Cardinals have an issue here with how they negotiate contracts and that needs to be looked at further. If this trend continues in the hands of Chaim Bloom, Randy Flores, or someone else, we will know there is a much deeper issue with the front office.