The Cardinals have made no secret of their desire to add to the bullpen. Having accomplished their goal of bringing in three starting pitchers, St. Louis is prioritizing the relief corps.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak suggested this evening the organization is likelier to add to the bullpen via free agency than in trade (relayed by Katie Woo of the Athletic). That’s a little surprising considering the Cards have been open about their willingness to trade a position player — Mozeliak candidly admitted they’re fielding offers on Tyler O’Neill yesterday — for pitching help.
Of course, noting that a free agent acquisition is more probable than a trade doesn’t close the latter avenue completely. The front office is surely exploring both paths. On the free agent front, reports have loosely linked St. Louis to Phil Maton, NPB closer Yuki Matsui and old friend Jordan Hicks.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (on X) that the Cards have also discussed KBO pitcher Woo Suk Go. The LG Twins have made Go available to MLB teams via the posting system. A 25-year-old righty, Go turned in a 3.68 ERA over 44 innings this past season. He struck out an excellent 31.1% of opposing hitters but walked an elevated 11.8% of batters faced.
Go has until January 3 to decide whether to sign with a major league club or stay in South Korea. He’s not expected to command the same level of contract as either Maton or Matsui (and certainly won’t approach what it would cost to reunite with Hicks). The Cardinals project for a payroll in the $180MM range, according to Roster Resource. That’s a little above this year’s approximate $177MM Opening Day mark.
Mozeliak has previously suggested the Cards would keep their payroll steady, so they could be fairly close to their budgetary limit. The front office head unsurprisingly confirmed last night that the Cards were not going to top the $237MM luxury tax threshold (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Roster Resource projects the franchise’s CBT number around $208MM, a fair bit south of the base tax tier.
So much for Yamamoto
As much as I’d like Yamamoto, if reports are true that it could approach $300m then it may be best. I expect him to be really good but we honestly don’t know.
Still need bullpen help
That was never happening.. Why do Cards fans always think DeWitt is going to change how he operates the team?
Love him or hate him, DeWitt has been consistent in his approach to team building, and has been very successful at it. So dont expect him to change that.
Yeah I agree, DeWitt almost never enters a major bidding war why would he do it for a somewhat unproven commodity? He wouldn’t pony up the extra dough for Luis Robert when he was an intl free agent and that was much much much less than what Yamamoto will garner. Btw I’m not saying I agree with it I’m just saying idk why cards fans gets all worked up and hyperfixate about certain free agents they’ll never sign.
teufel and jon,
It’s not like all, or even many, Cardinals fans expect the team to make huge bids on top-tier free agents. And it’s not just fans in St. Louis do this. Every team has fans who dream way bigger than their team’s owner will spend.
Well, maybe not Mets fans. 🙂
Concur. Every year we go through the exercise like we’re going to shell out $80mil on several top free agents, only for those who believed it to be disappointed…and then turn right around and do it again next year. They got their one big signing of the offseason in Gray. The rest was always going to be filler.
We were never in the running for Yamamoto. Some Cards writers liked to make up that story, because he and Noot are friends (as well as their moms). There was never any realistic expectation that he’d actually sign with the Cards. Our rotion was complete after the Gray signing. It was all about bullpen (and likely relatively cheap bullpen) after that point. The team is about at their spending limit for the year, despite a few very overly optimistic Cards’ writers ramblings otherwise.
Trade Arenado to the Dodgers Goldschmidt to the Red Sox Walker and Gorman are now 1st and 3rd base. Sign Shohei. Same payroll.
Does it make the team better?
Will give the team more cred which in turn could attract players that normally don’t want to play in St Louis. Mo has said he wants guys that want to be here well Shohei is a big draw card
No.
Doesn’t make the team better, and it’s not realistic. This is not the market Ohtani is looking for, and the Cards aren’t going to do a 10 year/$400+ million dollar deal with anyone.
Carlson and ONeill for Scott Effross
ONeill and Loutos for Justin Topa
Carlson for Karinchak and a little more
Maton and Matsui would be great additions to Helsley, Gallegos and Romero in the bullpen.
I truly hope my favorite team signs Woo Suk Go. Just rolls off the tongue. Lots of announcers sheepishly chuckling, all season long. If he plays well, that’s just a bonus.
Rule 5
Maybe so, but probably only one reliever that way.
Unlikely to get anyone who will be an upgrade this year in Rule 5.
If Woo Suk Go signs in the US, I hope he does well, but someday, when he has a really bad outing, some knucklehead is going to holler something like:
“Wooey do you Suk. Now, Go away.”
That’s a horrible name for a US-based pitcher — and I thought nothing could be worse than a pitcher named Homer.
I expect bullpen arms to be added by both free agency and trade. Donovan or Seggese will be traded. Either can be packaged for a good bullpen arm.
I think that Saggesse looks like a keeper at this point in his development. I hope we don’t move him and give him more AAA exposure.
I agree on Saggese, but they aren’t trading Donovan. This is why Mo said what he said today. Nobody is willing to pony up a quality reliever for O’Neill. I think some needy team should, but right now the Cards aren’t in an área of power to make it happen, so Mo say fine we will use free agency to acquire what we want and he said we won’t go over the cap. This is quite an increase in spending. It still allows for an Yamamoto acquisition and a somewhat high costing reliever. In other words he is saying only the cap limits us!
If they spend more than $6-8 mil more this offseason, I’ll be shocked. The team has consistently said they plan to be around last year’s payroll (which they’re already at or near), and Mo has basically stated that they’re done with the rotation unless something shocking falls into their lap. Some were excited about clearing salary by trading O’Neill and Matz, but who’s really going to take on those salaries and/or give us anything of value for them? A good starter is out of the question at this point. I do think they’ll spend moderately on 1-2 decent (but not great) RPs. Best hope is Matsui for a back of the pen shot. Maton is the most realistic for an earlier role.
Donovan won’t be traded for a reliever unless it’s a guy like Clase. and I’m not sure they’d do that.
Little surprised to hear they are looking to add more relievers through FA instead of a trade! I would love if they made a packaged trade for Bieber and Clause then add another higher leverage reliever through FA!
The Cardinals won’t trade the players that Cleveland would want for Clase and the Guardians are not going to settle for the spare parts that the Cardinals would be willing to trade.
Then fine keep Clase, and hope he doesn’t repeat 2023. Hope Bieber can rebound. Lotta hope!
Mo say “NO” to Hicks
Sure would be nice if MO traded someone. We have too much redundancy, not sure why he is scared
Don’t think he is scared, just frustrated. O’Neill is no chump.
He’s scared to trade true prospects or young MLB talent. Once guys don’t pan out, then he tries to trade them, but it’s too late. Nobody’s buying.
The Verdugo trade looks like a pretty close comp to what the Cards might get for Oniel
All the free agents want to play on the coasts,grab the big money.No huge free agent is EVER going to sign in St Louis, contreras, is the biggest Free Agent other than Holliday was just of seeing what he was worth.