- The Cardinals have been exploring “cash-neutral” trades this winter, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as part of a reader mailbag. More specifically, a framework in which St. Louis moves MLB pitching for big league ready offensive help makes some sense, Goold feels. Cardinals hitters ranked just nineteenth leaguewide in park-adjusted hitting last season, with particularly dismal work from the outfielders. The St. Louis organization has generally been expected to have a quiet offseason after chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. claimed the baseball industry “isn’t very profitable” in June. Nevertheless, the front office exploring cash-neutral deals perhaps hints there’s no organizational mandate to further slash costs. St. Louis currently projects for a 2021 payroll around $131MM, per Roster Resource, after opening the 2020 season in the $167MM range (before prorating).
Cardinals Rumors
Cardinals Sign Jose Rondon To Minor League Deal
The Cardinals announced that they’ve signed infielder Jose Rondon to a minor league contract Friday. He’s been invited to Major League Spring Training.
Rondon, 27 in March, appeared in 106 games between the Padres, White Sox and Orioles from 2016-19, mostly with the White Sox. He’s a career .201/.260/.336 hitter with nine homers in 290 plate appearances. Rondon has appeared at all four infield positions and at left field in the Major Leagues, albeit just 16 combined innings at left field and in first base. Shortstop has been his primary position throughout his pro career, though Rondon hasn’t graded out well in an admittedly tiny sample of 217 MLB frames at the position. His marks at second base and third base are better.
Rondon gives the Cardinals some infield depth after the club decided to decline second baseman Kolten Wong’s $12.5MM club option back in November. Even if he were to make the roster, Rondon would presumably serve as a bench piece, with Tommy Edman slotting in as the primary second baseman and Matt Carpenter getting a chance to rebound at the hot corner. The Cards currently have Edmundo Sosa and Elehuris Montero as additional infield options on the 40-man roster, and St. Louis recently added Max Moroff on a minor league deal with a non-roster invite — the same type of deal received by Rondon.
In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Rondon is a .258/.301/.448 hitter.
Minor MLB Transactions: 12/15/20
The latest minor league moves from around the sport…
- The Cardinals have signed infielder Max Moroff to a minors contract that contains an invitation to the Cards’ big league Spring Training camp, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors reports (Twitter link). A veteran of 104 Major League games with the Pirates and Indians from 2016-19, Moroff has a .183/.277/.319 slash line over 244 career plate appearances, though his ability to play second base, third base, and shortstop makes him a useful bench asset. Moroff signed a minor league deal with the Mets last winter.
- The Phillies signed utilityman Christian Bethancourt to a minor league deal, The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports (via Twitter). The contract has an invite to the Phillies’ Major League spring camp. Bethancourt inked a minors deal with Philadelphia last offseason but didn’t see any action in any big league games or at the Phils’ alternate training site. Bethancourt hit .222/.252/.316 over 489 PA with the Braves and Padres from 2013-17, and he has since played in the Brewers’ minor league system and in South Korea with the KBO League’s NC Dinos. Though Bethancourt is known for his ability to play multiple positions around the diamond, he’ll likely be used primarily as a catcher by the Phillies, Gelb notes, since the team is lacking in catching depth.
Latest On Cardinals’ Talks With Molina, Wainwright
It feels odd even to contemplate different uniforms for longtime Cardinals Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, but it’s far from certain either or both will remain in St. Louis. Mark Saxon of The Athletic provides an update on the state of ongoing talks between the club and these grizzled veterans.
While both players are pushing forty, each has clear appeal on the market. Molina is considered a master of his craft behind the dish and remains a palatable hitter, even if he’s unlikely to turn in any more average-or-better seasons with the bat. And Wainwright has racked up 237 1/3 innings of 3.91 ERA pitching dating back to the start of the 2019 season. Both players rank among MLBTR’s top 50 free agents.
It’s no surprise that the Cards maintain strong interest in retaining both players, neither of whom has donned the threads of another MLB franchise. But it’s equally predictable to learn that, per Saxon, the club is letting the market develop rather than rushing to re-ink Molina and Wainwright.
The Cardinals’ payroll predicament left it unlikely to jump to meet the demands of Molina, who’s said to be hoping for a multi-year deal while “seeking at least a one-year, $10 million deal with a 2022 option.” That’d eat up a big chunk of the available spending for the club, though president of baseball operations John Mozeliak did make clear that he’d pursue an alternative backstop if Yadi heads elsewhere.
In the case of Molina, Saxon writes that early talks didn’t gain much traction. Molina’s camp viewed an initial offer from the Cards as an attempt to lowball the veteran.
Wainwright doesn’t seem to have held many substantial discussions at all, with the Cardinals or other organizations. He says that he has yet to receive any firm numbers from suitors. Wainwright’s contract situation is at least more straightforward than that of Molina, as he could slot into just about any rotation and is said to be seeking only a single-season contract.
Cardinals, John Gant Avoid Arbitration
The Cardinals and right-handed reliever John Gant have reached a one-year, $2.1MM agreement to avoid arbitration, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. His salary is fully guaranteed.
Gant had been projected to earn $1.5MM to $1.9MM in arbitration, so the actual salary he’ll make in 2021 isn’t too far off from that. The 28-year-old seems well worth the money he’ll make next season, as he has been a highly productive member of the Cardinals’ bullpen over the past few seasons.
Gant debuted in 2016 with the Braves, with whom he didn’t post great numbers that season. The Braves then traded Gant to the Cardinals in a deal involving Jaime Garcia, but he was hardly lights-out during his initial action in St. Louis. However, Gant has been an integral part of the Cardinals’ bullpen dating back to 2018. The 28-year-old owns a 3.46 ERA/3.81 FIP with 7.97 K/9, 4.52 BB/9 and a 46.6 percent groundball rate in 195 1/3 innings in the past three seasons. Next year will be Gant’s penultimate season of team control.
National League Non-Tenders
With revenue losses expected to result in reduced payrolls around baseball, a larger number of players than usual are expected to be let go by their current teams by tonight’s 7pm CT non-tender deadline. Some of these players could end up re-signing with their teams for salaries below what they were projected (by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) to earn through the arbitration process, or teams could end up simply opting to explore other options…with many of those options arriving on the market through this same non-tender process.
You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through the list of National League players who have been let go in this post.
- Southpaw Tyler Anderson was cut loose by the Giants, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). The 30-year-old had a high-variability arbitration situation this year after turning in a solid bounceback effort in San Francisco. Anderson ended the season with 59 2/3 innings of 4.37 ERA ball, with 6.2 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. The club also non-tendered infielder Daniel Robertson, Tim Dierkes of MLBTR tweets, as well as righties Melvin Adon and Rico Garcia, and catcher Chadwick Tromp, per Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group.
Earlier Non-Tenders
- The Cardinals non-tendered righty John Brebbia and outfielder Rangel Ravelo, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Brebbia had played a significant role in the St. Louis pen for his first three MLB campaigns but is still recovering from mid-2020 Tommy John surgery.
- Right-handed reliever Clay Holmes has been non-tendered by the Pirates, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was among those to cover on Twitter. The 27-year-old hurler made it into just one MLB contest in 2020 owing to a forearm injury.
- The Marlins have decided not to tender a contract to righty Ryne Stanek, Craig Mish of Sports Grid first tweeted. He joins fellow right-hander Jose Urena in departing via non-tender. (Urena had already been designated for assignment.) Stanek, 29, struggled with the free pass in limited action this year but has been a quality, high-strikeout arm in the past and could be an interesting name to watch on the open market.
- In addition to Shreve, the Mets announced the non-tenders of righties Ariel Jurado, Paul Sewald, and Nick Tropeano.
- The Mets will not tender a contract to left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve, Robert Murray of FanSided tweets. Shreve performed reasonably well in 2020, logging a 3.96 ERA/3.99 FIP with 12.24 K/9 and 4.32 BB/9 in 25 innings, but the Mets will nonetheless move on instead of paying him around $1MM in arbitration.
- The Padres won’t tender a contract to infielder Greg Garcia, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). Garcia, 31, posted a woeful .200/.279/.250 batting line in 2020, albeit in a tiny sample of 71 plate appearances. In parts of two seasons with the Friars, he slashed .240/.351/.337, but the team opted not to give him a raise on last year’s $1.5MM salary.
- The Reds have non-tendered outfielder Brian Goodwin, he announced on Twitter (hat tip to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). Goodwin, whom the Reds acquired from the Angels over the summer, slashed .215/.299/.417 with six home runs and five stolen bases over 164 plate appearances between the teams in 2020. He was due to earn a projected $2.7MM to $3.6MM in arbitration.
- The Cubs have told Jose Martinez he isn’t being tendered a contract, ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers reports (Twitter link). Acquired from the Rays in a deadline deal, Martinez went hitless over 22 plate appearances with Chicago, only reaching base once on a walk. The 32-year-old mashed for the Cardinals from 2016-18, but delivered closer to league-average production in 2019 with St. Louis and with the Rays last season prior to the trade.
No Extension Talks Yet Between Cardinals, Flaherty
There’s no doubt Jack Flaherty will be tendered a contract in his first season of arbitration eligibility, though Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals have yet to speak with Flaherty about a long-term extension. With Flaherty under team control through 2023, there isn’t necessarily any rush to work out a multi-year deal, so the Cards might prefer to wait a little longer before exploring a larger deal (especially if the team is still trying to figure out its payroll situation after the revenue losses of the 2020 season).
There’s no doubt Jack Flaherty will be tendered a contract in his first season of arbitration eligibility, though Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals have yet to speak with Flaherty about a long-term extension. With Flaherty under team control through 2023, there isn’t necessarily any rush to work out a multi-year deal, so the Cards might prefer to wait a little longer before exploring a larger deal (especially if the team is still trying to figure out its payroll situation after the revenue losses of the 2020 season).
That said, an extension would also give both Flaherty and the Cardinals some financial certainty through what could be a tumultuous few years, given both the pandemic and the expiration of baseball’s collective bargaining agreement following the 2021 season. Signing young players to long-term deals has been a key tactic of John Mozeliak’s tenure in the St. Louis front office, so one would imagine an extension would be broached with Flaherty at some point this offseason, perhaps during Spring Training. It’s worth noting that past negotiations between Flaherty and the Cardinals over the relatively simpler matter of his pre-arbitration contracts also haven’t been straight-forward, as the Cardinals have renewed the right-hander’s contracts in each of the last two seasons.
At Least Six Teams Showing Interest In James McCann
Yadier Molina has drawn the most headlines among catchers early in free agency, in part due to the willingness of both him and his agent to go on-record to discuss the veteran’s market. However, James McCann is drawing interest from a similar collection of teams, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link), with the Yankees, Mets, Cardinals, Angels and incumbent White Sox among the clubs to express some interest in the free-agent backstop. The Phillies would have interest in the event that J.T. Realmuto signs elsewhere, Heyman adds.
Given that each of these clubs, with the exception of the White Sox and Phillies, has already expressed interest in Molina, it’s not much of a surprise that they’d also at least gauge McCann’s asking price. There’s been speculation about the Yankees moving on from Gary Sanchez for months, while the Mets currently lack a starting-caliber backstop on their roster. The Angels got a big year out of Max Stassi in 2020, but that was obviously a rather limited sample and Stassi’s prior track record is less impressive.
The Cardinals may raise some eyebrows, given their interest in retaining Molina, but it’s only logical that with Molina exploring other options they’d do the same. Should Molina get the two-year deal he’s seeking from another club, the Cards could pivot to McCann or simply remain in-house and turn the keys over to 26-year-old Andrew Knizner.
As for the White Sox, their interest in keeping McCann is well known, but it’s unlikely to result in a deal. The ChiSox signed Yasmani Grandal to a franchise-record four-year, $73MM contract last winter, and with three years remaining on that arrangement there’s simply no room for McCann to get everyday at-bats. McCann spoke earlier this offseason about his free agency, telling NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien that he feels he’s earned the opportunity to be a team’s starting catcher. The White Sox can’t offer that with Grandal under contract.
It’s hard to dispute McCann’s feelings after a pair of terrific seasons with the South Siders. While he was non-tendered by the Tigers after a dismal 2018 campaign, McCann has more than bounced back in Chicago; he’s taken his game to new heights. McCann was a bit shy of a league-average bat as Detroit’s primary catcher in 2017, but he’s broken out with a .276/.334/.474 batting line in 587 plate appearances with the White Sox (116 wRC+).
He’s made strides in terms of hard-hit rate and exit velocity, supporting that offensive breakout, and McCann also improved defensively quite a bit this past season. He’s always been adept at controlling runners (career 35.8 percent caught-stealing rate), but McCann prioritized improving his pitch-framing this past offseason, and the results were strong. Statcast reflects that McCann went from one of the worst catchers in the game at framing pitches on the bottom of the zone to one of the game’s best. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but it’d be a reach to suggest that McCann simply lucked his way from getting 44.8 percent of such pitches called all the way up to 61.8 percent.
The Phillies probably aren’t the only club who view McCann as a “Plan B” to Realmuto, but there also figure to be teams that know they cannot afford Realmuto and are thus willing to act more quickly. McCann and his agents will have to determine whether they’re better served taking one of those early offers or holding out until Realmuto is off the market. The latter route could lead to increased interest, but it’s also possible some teams that are willing to act now will have already filled their need at catcher or spent the majority of their offseason budget by that point.
Yadier Molina Says Five Teams Have Shown Interest
Yadier Molina has long stated that he wants to remain with the Cardinals, and he reiterated that hope in an interview with Laura A. Bonnelly V. of Mas Que Pelota (hat tip to Deportivo Z 101’s Hector Gomez). However, Molina also revealed four other teams who have shown interest in his services — the Yankees, Mets, Padres, and Angels.
The two New York clubs had already been linked to Molina’s market, and the Cards have been in talks for seemingly close to a year about another contract to keep Molina in St. Louis. The Angels and Padres are new additions to the hunt, however, and each represents an interesting possible landing spot for the nine-time Gold Glover.
At first glance, San Diego already seems set at catcher, with Austin Nola behind the plate, former top prospect Francisco Mejia slated as the backup and star prospect Luis Campusano making his MLB debut this season. Signing Molina, however, would add immeasurably more experience and some veteran leadership to a team that plans to contend for a championship in 2021. While Nola’s ability to catch makes him a particularly valuable utility asset, he can also play several other positions around the diamond; the Padres could use Nola in a somewhat normal backup catcher role to spell Molina once a week, and then otherwise deploy him at other positions.
Molina has expressed interest in a two-year contract, but even if Molina were to land such a deal, that wouldn’t be much of a roadblock to Campusano as the Padres’ eventual catcher of the future. Mejia could be the odd man out if Molina joined the team, as Mejia has yet to show much over parts of four MLB seasons with the Indians and Padres. That said, Mejia has only 362 career plate appearances, only just turned 25, and was a consensus top-35 prospect as recently as the 2018-19 offseason, so he would still be an interesting trade chip if the Padres made him expendable.
There are some obvious family ties for Molina in Anaheim, as his brother Jose is the Angels’ catching coach, and his other brother Bengie spent his first eight MLB seasons in an Angels uniform. Yadier would also be reunited with his old Cardinals teammate Albert Pujols for the final season of Pujols’ ten-year, $240MM deal with the Halos.
Beyond the personal connections, Molina would also fill a need for Los Angeles since Max Stassi could miss the start of the season after undergoing hip surgery in October. Depending on how quickly Stassi recovers, the Angels could start Molina (and use Anthony Bemboom as the backup) until Stassi is ready, and then potentially move into something closer to a timeshare, though it’s probably safe to guess Molina might end up getting the bulk of the action.
Latest On Cardinals’ Rotation
The Cardinals are dealing with some questions in their rotation at the moment, but they have not actively pursued starters in free agency, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Franchise icon Adam Wainwright is the only starter they’ve gone after with much aggression, according to Goold.
The Cardinals’ rotation took a major hit when right-hander Dakota Hudson underwent Tommy John surgery in late September. He won’t pitch at all next year as a result, while Wainwright is no sure thing to return to the team for his age-39 season. Despite his age, Wainwright remains an above-average major league hurler. The career-long Cardinal is fresh off a year in which he recorded a 3.15 ERA/4.11 FIP with 7.4 K/9 and 2.06 BB/9 over 65 2/3 innings. It’s no surprise the Cardinals want him back, then.
With Hudson unavailable and Wainwright off the roster at the moment, Jack Flaherty, Carlos Martinez, Kwang Hyun Kim, Miles Mikolas, Austin Gomber, Daniel Ponce de Leon and Johan Oviedo are among their starting options for next season. St. Louis went all of 2020 without Mikolas, a quality starter from 2018-19 who missed this year because of July surgery on his right flexor tendon. His return should prove beneficial next year, but it still seems the Cardinals would be well-served to re-sign Wainwright and/or address their rotation in other ways this offseason.
