The case for (and against) the Cardinals bringing back Miles Mikolas

Immediately after the last out of the World Series, baseball fans in St. Louis will jump out of their seats and cheer as loud as anyone in the winning city. 

That last out will signal the start of the Cardinals’ offseason. 

As soon as the Series ends, the MLB exclusive negotiating window opens. All teams get a small window to negotiate with their own free agents before those players can talk to other teams. 

Some players and teams with agree quickly, and the player will not reach the open market. 

Other players and teams may reach an impasse. Maybe the player thinks he can get more years or more money from a different team. If that is the case, then the team can make a qualifying offer (QO). The QO is a specific, one-year contract worth the mean salary of the league's 125 highest-paid players. Once a team extends a QO, the player has 10 days to accept or reject it. If he rejects the offer and signs with another team, the other team gives the original team a draft pick. 

The St. Louis Cardinals have done an excellent job of clearing the decks for the new regime. Their shiny, brand new, President of Baseball Operations, Chaim Bloom, has only one player he will need to decide on. Miles Mikolas. 

There are three options. Let him walk, make a qualifying offer, or sign a new contract. 

Let’s get the easy one out of the way. To make a qualifying offer to Mikolas, the contract will need to be approximately $22 million. No other team would come close to matching that, and the Cardinals would be stuck. This is not the thing to do for a rebuilding team.

If the Cardinals try to work out a deal, Spotrac estimates that his market value would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.4 million for a one-year contract. 

The first major decision Bloom will make is deciding to work out a deal with Mikolas or just let him walk. It might not be as easy as some are making this out to be. We will look at the reasons for and against.