Recent reports have connected the Cardinals to a couple high-profile names – their top free agent, outfielder Marcell Ozuna, as well as Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado – but pump the brakes if you expect a major acquisition prior to the season. Owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said Monday that he doesn’t think there’s a “significant” pickup in the offing, adding that it wouldn’t fit the Cardinals’ “model,” Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Between Ozuna and Arenado, the latter would unquestionably be the more impactful get, and he made it clear Monday he’s displeased with the Rockies. However, according to DeWitt, the Cardinals are “not actively” looking to make a trade. Arenado’s enormous contract (seven years, $234MM, including $35MM in 2020) may be part of the reason why.
The Cardinals, who began last year’s NL Central-winning campaign with a franchise-record Opening-Day payroll of just over $162MM, already have $168MM-plus in commitments heading into this season, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. If we’re to take DeWitt at his word, that’s about all they want to spend. The team’s “pushing the envelope” by even being in the $170MM range, per DeWitt, who did note the Cards would consider bumping that total “up a little bit.” But there’s nothing “little” about Arenado’s salary, and DeWitt revealed that, at this point, they “can’t be in that kind of ($35 million) range” on an addition(s) to their roster.
Ozuna’s next deal will be worth far less than Arenado’s, of course, but even he could prove too rich for the Cardinals’ blood. Regardless, they’re not pursuing Ozuna with much gusto, as Goold writes they aren’t “nearly as aggressive as other teams” on trying to reel in the qualifying offer recipient. Therefore, it appears St. Louis will enter the season with a mix of several other in-house options as their outfield choices.
Assuming the Cardinals don’t come away with Ozuna, Arenado or any other big names, this will go down as a quiet winter for the club. So far, Korean left-hander Kwang-hyun Kim – whom they signed to a modest guarantee worth $8MM over two years – has been the Cardinals’ most noteworthy outside acquisition. Aside from winning the derby for Kim, they’ve re-signed righty Adam Wainwright and catcher Matt Wieters for a combined $7MM.
To me it seems wise to refrain from signing Ozuna. I suppose I only regret (as if I made the decision!) that Fowler and Carpenter are so unproductive that it’s crippling. Hopefully one of the new guys can really help. It’s been nice to have DeJong come out of nowhere and Wong was (relatively) great last season.
That said, I do sincerely hope Carpenter regains his form that got him on the OD roster to begin with. Contact hitter, doubles for days. Idk what happened…I guess he hit a homer once and decided that was way cooler and started swinging for the fences ever since.
I do seem to recall a story about the Cardinals asking Carp to try to up his power game. To me, 50 doubles is power.
Don’t count on it enough to replace too much of Ozuna’s run production.
Team is going to take a step back unless the pitching is just lights out.
I agree…I think they do have PTSD from Fowler and Carp but imo the smart move is to see what the Rookies got…They will wait for Carlsons service time and if O’Neill, Bader or Thomas can’t handle the duties then they will bring him up …as a cardinals fan I expect a little comeback from carp…can’t wait to see…it’s around the corner
Well said Cards81, whoever you are.
What did he say that was, “well said”?
Um…..MOST of what he said…….was “well said”….MLock….whoever you are
Stop trolling me MLock, it’s getting weird 🙁
Payne, you have a huge ego if you think I’m trolling you. If I’m responding to you, 95% of the time it’s because I think you’re an I…T.
I think Cardinal ownership is scared to sign that big contract because for every Goldschmidt there is 3 carpenter’s. Long contracts hurt plain and simple, look at the Angels for example.
The last 2 years of that Goldschmidt contract will be bad.
Carpenter, Fowler, Cecil. Why are the fans paying for your gms mistakes
LOL
Because that’s baseball?…….
Cubs fans had to pay for their GM wanting Ernie Broglio so badly.
Might as well see what Carlson can do. While they’re at it they should give a shot to Montero and Gorman this spring over at 3rd base just to see how far along they are in their developement. Sure as hell can’t hurt since they aren’t doing anything else this off-season.
Ummmmm…no. Not how that works
I don’t care at all about not having Ozuna back (no arm, slow feet, won’t dive) but it sure would have been fun to have a couple seasons with Arenado!
Well cecil is gone after this year, thank god, and yadi wont make 20 mil next year. If they could send a Fowler back in an arenado deal they could definately make it work. My preference is to have carp over Fowler. I know fowler had a better season, but it still was pretty lousy. Would bet on a better improvement from carp over Fowler. Hopefully they can make it work. If not hopefully they bench the non producers for younger players. Go cards.
I would have to disagree with you on this one. At least Fowler can play defense as where Carpenter is a liability. Your right about Yadi not got going to get $20 million next year he’s only going to get about 12-15 range. Mozeliak doesn’t have a clue and DeWitt is cheap or else they would’ve brought in somebody beside a Korean pitcher noone has ever heard of. Oh btw the injury to Mikolas to start off the spring doesn’t sound good either. HORRIBLE off season Cards
Maybe they could even move a c Martinez to free up some payroll. For a young reliever or prospect. He frequently looked shaky as the closer. Needs to be a starter.
I thought the front office said that ballpark village, security, spring training complex ect wouldn’t be taken from the same funds that pay the players …. Dewitt pretty much said the exact opposite today … maybe I missed something but seems confusing
I’d say MO’s phone was ringing tonight from the Rockies GM …. Arenado was pissed when he found out that his trade to the Cards wasn’t going through.
3rd post – but if the Cards upped their payroll by 12 mil, got rid of Carp or Fowler’s contract – they would be well within reach of affording Arenado.
Then one might imagine a Carp/CMart or a Carp/Wong trade would really close that gap.
Just thinking out loud so don’t hammer me on Wong, but just those two together would be 30 Mil’ish while letting Edmon have 2nd.
I understand that there would be a prospect or two involved but We will have to give up actual MLB talent to pull the trade off. The Rockies don’t want to hit a reset button by any means.
Why would another team take on the Cardinals bad contracts, without the Cardinals giving up some thing to make it worth their while?
As for the Rockies – as I wrote elsewhere, I think both they and Arenado are going to have problems moving that contract. With the opt-out it’s a difficult one to take on. Then add in Arenado’s public comments. Any team thinking of taking him on has to wonder what happens if he becomes disgruntled with them over the life of the contract.
Again, this is the exact reason that more and more teams are moving away from giving out long-term contracts.
Why do you think teams aren’t giving out long term contracts? Plenty of long term contracts have been thrown out at the top of the FA market (I’m calling 5 years or more long term) and many young players have agreed to long term contracts. If you’d like I can probably think of 15 players in the past 2 offseason that agreed to 5 year or longer contracts/extensions.
Just guessing, but I’m thinking he meant “long-term contracts to older players”……..not players like Acuna, Albies, Kingery, etc……
Well for 1 Rockies don’t need infielders at all… They got story, hampson, Rodgers, Mahaon all young and 3 have been waiting to get their time in at mlbs.. So Wang doesn’t make any sense for them… And why would Rockies be taking on any bad contract without cardinals sending back the farm… Just cause Arenado threw a tantrum tonight doesn’t mean the Rockies changed their minds about moving him so quickly, and there are a number of teams that would most likely ve willing to give up good prospects without sending back trash … Your thinking is the same reason that the trade never happen during their talks the past week,,, Cards won’t pony up , Rockies arent taking bad contracts, its not a fit for either team
Is that all they have to do? Just trade half their team and bam, Arenado. Only a couple have no trade clauses and horrible contracts, so shouldn’t be hard.
The Cardinals print money. They could easily afford a $200,000,000 payroll. Doesn’t mean they have to but DeWitt’s “pushing the envelope” comment was beyond laughable. Next year Molina will make maybe 15 mil tops. Cecil will be off the books. There is $12,000,000. Next year will be Fowler/Carpenter’s last year (2021). That’s another $34,000,000. They have money and contracts coming off the books the next two off-seasons. They can and should pursue they hell out of Arenado.
I think if they really wanted to push the envelope about payroll, which they shouldn’t, they could probably trade c Martinez to unload some money if they had to and he has trade value, and with cecil gone and molina probably taking a pay cut, theres 35 mil there. Now it’s just finding the pieces to make colorado bite, and they wont have to take any money back.
But don’t forget about their current crop becoming a lot more expensive. Flaherty is going to command a lot of money, and the Cardinals should focus on keeping him. I just don’t think now is the time to commit to a player we haven’t seen outside of Coors.
So the Cardinals can fit Arenado in 2022 without a problem without Carp and Fowler. But it would still be tight in 2021 and a $35m addition to a record payroll in 2020. That last part is a problem. They can probably find a taker for Fowler without giving up too much. But that would still put the Cards at $188m, $24m above their record payroll. And the price would be replacing Fowler, sending a prospect with him, and trading a couple for Arenado.
Now if they can find a taker for Carp, they are in business, but his contract has to be $30m underwater. That’s like a attaching a couple first round picks to him to get him out
No they can’t.
Osuna might be holding out until June if something doesn’t happen real soon!
We know they were never serious about adding payroll. The Colorado bs with Aranado and the interest in Ozuna was bs.
They never intended to do anything with all the money they committed to Carpenter, Goldy and Fowler. Molina is another story and honestly I think after he made this proclamation that he’s a cardinal or not it’s time to move on.
Why is it time to move on cause he said he wanted to be a cardinal or retire? He means a ton to the team beyond what he does on the field. Not to mention how he calls a game.
Don’t resign Ozuna! Let him go.
Cards should pursue Arenado.. They need some pop in this line up. I cannot get over the love they have for Bader. He is a season 200 hitter. Carp and Fowler are 2 big wastes of money . Get rid of them.. Bill Dimwitt better realize the current line-up is not going to do it.
Hey, I cannot get over the love you have for batting average.
And how do you “get rid” of Carpenter and Fowler? If we don’t want them, who will?
I like how you said “hey” before you questioned him on why he likes a stat that shows how often you get on base by getting a base hit.
Bader only has to hit .240 to be elite. That’s how good his fielding is. Period.
Agree
Batting. 240 didn’t work for Bader’s older brother Peter, and he was a better CF than Harry.
I think if they really wanted to push the envelope about payroll, which they shouldn’t, they could probably trade c Martinez to unload some money if they had to and he has trade value, and with cecil gone and molina probably taking a pay cut, theres 35 mil there, they would have to bite an 18 mil bullet this year, but the payroll would even up next year. Now it’s just finding the pieces to make colorado bite, and they wont have to take any money back.
You’ve made a great case for taking on Arenado in 2021 when those contracts fall off. That doesn’t solve the 2020 $35m addition.
While there might be a little more room under the tax threshold, any impact acquisition would fill it up too much. You have to look at marginal returns. The Cardinals can supply anything that costs anything from a low to mid tier free agent.
Ozuna was part of a bad offense last year. I’m not saying it is his fault, or that he won’t rebound, but if you have the opportunity to shake up a lineup and you trust your system, there is really no reason to sign him, even to a small deal.
Unsaid here is the ability for the Cardinals to keep money around to pursue deals on existing players. Flaherty, Hudson, Gallegos, Hicks; all of these will get more expensive. And then you have Gorman, Liberatore, and Carlson right behind.
Bunsel, You really don’t think the BA is no big deal? The higher the BA means more hits which means more runs.. Just giving him centerfield with a season high 200 BA is crazy.. The cards need someone to protect Goldy. At least Ozuma did that with his bat. They need someone that can hit over way 15 HRs and a semi high BA to do that. As for as hitting is concerned, I see a bunch of average ball players that pitchers will not fear with the exception of Goldy.
Our big new TV deal was supposed to
Open up money. Ballpark Village 2 is done and filling up with rent paying businesses. Why isn’t there money?
I also heard that the Cards have radio and TV deals that is making them millions. Bill Dimwitt has been content with average teams. That is why we rarely make the playoffs anymore. Unless I have missed something, we have done nothing to improve our offense. With Ozuma gone, you could say it has gotten worse.. The Cards management is betting on Fowler and Carp to bounce back again and Bader will take down his man-bun and learn to hit this year. Good luck!
So Bill DeWitt Jr. is the actual person who will not hire or trade for a young impact player to come to the Cardinals!?!? Because of money!!! Wow!!! Look at all of the bad contracts DeWitt is already paying for that we’re Low Hanging fruit!!! Guess you get what you pay for!!!