Think St. Louis Cardinals are cheap? Then you’ve forgotten that baseball is a business
For years, the lunatic fringe of St. Louis sports has shrieked to the heavens about the supposed cheapness of Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr., demanding that “DeWallet” be loosed upon the universe even as they simultaneously excoriated the club for spending too much money in ways with which they did not agree.
I thought about those people yesterday and was sincerely, if modestly, jealous that they would not be forced to reconceive their selected narrative, even as they continue to miss the point.
The Cardinals this week, in the personage of President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak, announced that they would not pick up the 2021 option for Gold Glove second baseman Kolten Wong, saving $11.5 million in real dollars and allowing him to enter what’s sure to be the most crowded and barren free agent market in years, if not decades.
“It’s just immediate flexibility,” Mozeliak said of the decision to let Wong walk. “Whereas, if we committed to it and then all of a sudden we realized we were in a more difficult spot, then what are we left to try to do? Not having a ton of time to explore the trade market or know what that looks like, candidly, it was just the very conservative and safer play at the moment.”
Mozeliak emphasized, as the club has long insisted, that a disproportionate amount of the Cardinals’ operating income is the result of gate receipts and other aspects of fan attendance. With those numbers plummeting to zero in 2020 and having the potential to remain there in 2021, the goal is now to avoid excessive financial entanglements.
Put simply: they’re cutting salary expenses. Buckle up.
“Clearly revenue is going down, so it will be most likely where payroll will go down,” Mozeliak said. “Adjusting to what that looks like, we haven’t determined, because we don’t know what revenues look like for next year.”
Those comments echo the thoughts of Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III, who told the News-Democrat earlier this week that it was “probably a little early” to determine what the club’s expenditures on players would be.
Early or not, the calendar demands decisions.
Major league players were able to file for free agency on Wednesday and, on Monday, they can begin signing with other clubs. Organizational stalwarts Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright were among those filing, and Mozeliak said Wednesday that while he expects to have conversations with their representatives this week, “I imagine when you get this close to market, you go to market.”
If the assumption still exists throughout the fanbase that re-signing the iconic duo is simply a matter of formality and paperwork, it needs to be quashed. Nothing is certain, and at the moment, it’s perhaps not even likely.
Molina and his representation have been clear that he seeks a two-year contract, and the Cardinals are likely to be hesitant to engage in any multi-year pacts this winter given the financial position they’ve chosen to take.
Before the pandemic, a source close to Molina said that he would likely be willing to accept a 50% pay cut to $10 million per year. Even at that rate, for a two-year commitment, it’s easy to imagine the Cardinals blanching, skeptical he would be able to receive such a deal on the open market.
The concern for the Cardinals is that the rightfully proud and occasionally mercurial Molina might find offense or disrespect in an opening salvo in a negotiation, quickly souring on the prospect of returning. If he then signs elsewhere, he’d be likely to attempt to push hard for Wainwright to join him.
Cardinals ownership has long operated under the assumption that consistent spending — yes, sometimes poorly allocated — is the best way to supplement internal growth and guarantee a certain floor of competitiveness. It’s that sense of being in the mix which helps to drive fan interest and therefore the revenue stream.
Bill DeWitt hasn’t been cheap because he would’ve lost growth potential if he had been. Now, the equation is changing.
There’s no question that the Cardinals can afford to sign whichever players they desire at whatever salary closes the deal. Even if cash flow to the ball club has been stunted, the banks are open for business and the Cardinals’ credit is good.
If the team cratered in value, plummeting $1.4 billion in an apocalyptic financial catastrophe, it would still be worth $500 million, or $425 million more than the initial net purchase price.
But that’s not how business is done, or how empires and legacies are built.
In fairness, it’s not how personal finances are done either. I could today purchase $50 worth of Halloween candy without jeopardizing my own standing, and I would enjoy it a great deal. But the Halloween candy market is about to crater, and available peanut butter cups will, within a week, greatly exceed the number of interested purchasers.
I don’t expect the Cardinals to buy candy next week, either. I expect them to cut as much as they can; Carlos Martínez is firmly on the trade block, and gentle inquiries are likely to be made regarding Dexter Fowler.
The calculation is cold but logical. The team relies on gate receipts. They almost certainly won’t achieve normalcy on that front in 2021.
If ever there was a time to burn bridges to stay warm, it’s now, with the hope that a potentially normal 2022 season will inspire so much gratitude and jubilation that hard feelings will be buried.
This is the business of baseball, the same as it ever was. If you feel like you knew it all along, take comfort in that certitude.
In truth, it was never quite cynical enough.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 7:30 AM.
