The Cardinals have renewed the contract of right-hander Jack Flaherty for the 2020 season, as per a team announcement. Flaherty was the only one of 25 pre-arbitration players on the Cards’ roster who didn’t agree to terms on a contract for the coming season, and thus the team will impose Flaherty’s salary for 2020.
That number will work out to $604.5K, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Cardinals’ internal formula for calcuating pre-arb raises based on merit awarded Flaherty some extra money beyond the $563.5K minimum salary for his outstanding numbers in 2019, including a special $10K bonus for his fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young Award voting. However, that $10K was canceled out by a $10K penalty that the Cardinals impose on any pre-arbitration player who doesn’t come to an agreement.
This is the second consecutive season that Flaherty has had his contract renewed rather than come to an agreement, which the righty told reporters was a matter of “principle.” As a reminder, whether or not a player agrees to his pre-arb salary or gets his contract renewed, it doesn’t have any bearing on his roster status. Flaherty will still be suiting up as the Cardinals’ probable Opening Day starter, and he doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings about the situation.
“It’s just kind of the product of the system that we have,” Flaherty told reporters. “Can’t really do much. They’re going to play within what they’re allowed to do in the system. It’s not them. I can’t fault them for doing that. The system is what it is, and it’s not the best.”
Perhaps more notably, it doesn’t seem like the Cardinals and Flaherty’s made any headway towards a long-term contract extension, let alone his 2020 pact. The two sides “were not able to find common ground for the discussion of an extension going into this spring training,” Goold writes. Flaherty is still under team control through the 2023 season, so there isn’t any immediate rush for St. Louis to get Flaherty locked up, though the right-hander’s long-term price tag will only go up if he enjoys another good season in 2020.
The lack of an agreement on a pre-arb deal also doesn’t necessarily mean that a multi-year extension isn’t eventually possible. Just last offseason, the Rays renewed Blake Snell’s deal for the 2019 campaign and then inked him to a five-year, $50MM extension only days later. The Cardinals have long been proactive in giving extensions, both early-career deals to impressive young players and then secondary extensions to veterans (i.e. Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright) who have established themselves as franchise cornerstones.
Reference to your previous post ( since comments are closed) Trey left camp yesterday March 7th, not September 7th
Ash is god damn robot!
Nice reference.
Is this a reference to Parker and Brett wanting full shares? Cuz I love it, even if I don’t get the exact thing from the article it references.
Damn I wasn’t thinking that deep into but I’m glad you are. Well done sir.
It’s funny how people think he is going to win CY next year. Like did something happen to Degrom!?!
He outpitched Degrom in the second half last year. It’s not inconceivable to imagine Jack winning the Cy Young
Wheeler out pitched Degrom in the 2nd half the year Degrom had a 1.77 era…
It’s really nothing special. Is wheeler elite? No. Flaherty is better than wheeler but Flaherty isn’t a Degrom, Sherzer, Verlander, Kershaw, Cole type pitcher. Lets not get carried away.
If you both watch a game in which Flaherty pitches and read about how he prepares for games and propels himself to be better, it’s pretty clear that he IS another one of those types of pitchers. This guy will be a perennial cy young candidate, and it is very obvious to everyone watching him progress and succeed.
LOL! I’ll be waiting for that CY. Certainly won’t happen next year.
He gets better when people doubt him as well. Did you miss the part of the article where it said he placed 4th last year in the cy voting at the age of 23? Degrom was 27 before he placed in cy voting (7th) and is now 32 years old. So how are you doubting that a pitcher whos 8 years younger than the pitcher your comparing him to who’s only going into his 3rd full year will never best him?
Bc Degrom is a late bloomer. Degrom was 27 but his arm was younger than Flahertys arm now…. Degrom doesn’t have a lot of miles on his arm since he was a SS. Degrom is a lot more talented than Flaherty. Don’t compare them it’s disrespectful to Degrom.
cheap
Fill in the blank: My crew is big and it keeps getting bigger that’s cause Jesus Christ is my ( blank)
Response to fill in the blank: Jesus Christ is my Lord and SAVIOR!!!
Favorite swear words!
Rappin for Jesus. The son of the original G.
They better extend him quick.
Gerrit Cole got pissed off when he was renewed for 600k after his 2015 campaign. Two mediocre seasons later they traded for 4 mediocre prospects and Cole puts up 2 CY Young seasons for the Astros
Flaherty won’t forget this!!!! The Cardinals would not have made the playoffs without his
0.97 ERA in the second half of the season. When it counts!!! “IF” he were to resign with the Cardinals when he reaches Free Agency—-there will be NO hometown discount and the Cardinals would have to pay an astronomical price for Flaherty. Mozeliak and the Cardinals Ownership could have just as easily given Flaherty $1,000,000. Instead of $600,000 and Flaherty would have been elated and dedicated to the organization. I swear——besides having no personality, John Mozeliak has no Common Sense at all!!!! Now I’m beginning to believe the principle owner of the Cardinals, DeWitt Jr., is getting just like Mozeliak in those same areas!!!!
Uncle Mike — with all due respect, very few of the players today have any allegiance to a team, it’s all about the money — and it’s never enough. I like Flaherty and hope he sticks around but I highly doubt there are any teams around who willingly shower rookies with mountains of cash they aren’t obliged to give them under arbitration or FA. How often have you seen a player like Carpenter give back a huge chunk of their pay after having a really ratty year?
Smartbus — don’t you think having a great team backing you up on defense and offense helps a pitchers W/L record and ERA? Cole sure didn’t have that in Pittsburgh.
It’s not worth pissing off good players over inconsequential amounts of money just because you can. It doesn’t mean you should.
The problem with the way the current system in place is that if you give a player with pre-arb status money for doing a good job, the team penalizes itself. The escalators used in Arbitration has many factors and salary bumps is one of them. If a team feels like they have a chance to sign a player long term, the they won’t have a problem rewarding a player pre-arb like the Angels did with Trout.
10k bonus for 4th in NL Cy Young voting? That’s very generous of the Cardinals.
And take bonus back with fine:-)
cheap bastards
How to destroy a relationship with a potential star player for no reason at all. Congrats Mo!
What would you have him do?
What would not “destroy the relationship” giving him a 2 million dollar pre-arb salary this year?
I keep thinking the same thing. Don’t screw this up, ownership….sometimes there are exceptions to the rule. Quit being cheapskates and spend the money all of loyal fans are spending!!!
Like the $176 million dollars that they are spending this year ?
Remember they can always work a deal out during the season maybe it’s Jack and his agent betting on himself. One never knows the market. What maybe a good deal now might not be 3 years from now.
Wouldn’t it be e.g. vs i.e?
He pitches and steals bases, deserves more
Can you imagine if this were Kris Bryant? There would be 100s of posts from everyone that knows him saying there’s no way he’s ever signing and he needs to be traded.
Guess we are going to have to endure three or four years of how the Cardinals didn’t come to an agreement with Flaherty and extended at the basement of costs.
Start the clock.
“Karma”
Please pay Jack the money he deserves at market rate. Please lock him up for the longterm. He needs to be a lifetime Cardinal. #differencemaker #gamer
Flaherty will be leaving as soon as humanly possible.
The Cards paid Pujols $600k his second season (when the minimum was much less than today) and $900k his second year. They ended up signing him to a 7-year, $100M deal.
Flaherty isn’t Pujols, but this regime could learn something from the previous one.
What’s going on in St. Louis? This is very un-Cardinal move. Normally they jump at the chance to lock up young pitching. I don’t know anything about Flaherty beyond the numbers, fill me in on the dynamic between him and the team.. Is Flaherty controversial or a blowhard or is the team biased somehow? What’s the T?
$10K penalty for not agreeing to their contract? What a garbage franchise.
That’s a MLB rule
Maybe the Cards will sign him to a very large contract extension if he is able to repeat last years success. Lots of money coming off the books here pretty soon. Either way – I’m looking forward to him pitching for the Cards for the next 4 years.
I’s Have knocked him to the league minimum. First rule in life. Know when you are not in a position of power. Try arguing when a cop pulls you over and see how it works out.
Remember the good old days when players used to hold out?
You’ll see a strike in 2022 over the control years teams are able to under pay players and restrict their earning potential… It’s a given unless the owners wise up..
If there is another strike by these greedy overpaid players I hope the owners end the season and don’t come back for a good long time. The last strike cost MLB hundreds of millions in gate revenues for the next several years and the folks paying their salaries (the fans) were the ones pissed off at the players. If they are dumb and greedy enough to stab the golden goose again, I hope it burns them badly.
I’m starting to wonder if the Cards are gun shy about offering a big extension to players before arbitration level. Myself I would lock Jack up big. A front of the rotation player that can be the face of your franchise for the next 6+ years instead of waiting for him to reach FA 6 yrs / $118 mil front loaded.