With Wainwright inked, what other moves do St. Louis Cardinals have in the works?
After a long winter defined more by slashing dollars than supplementing a roster, the St. Louis Cardinals took their first step forward out of collective hibernation on Friday, announcing they’ve re-signed franchise stalwart pitcher Adam Wainwright to a one-year, $8 million contract.
“I’m coming home,” a beaming Wainwright said. “I’m glad to be a St. Louis Cardinal. I love being a St. Louis Cardinal.”
Wainwright’s return sets the stage for what is likely to be an increasing period of activity as the club narrows its focus for the 2021 season in the presumed run up to the opening of spring training within the next three weeks.
“As I mentioned a while back, I thought January would look a lot more like December,” Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said. “I think you saw a lot more player movement, and certainly some of the things you might have seen at the end of January likely will now roll into February.
“Still time to improve the club, still time to look at things. We’re going to remain open-minded and see what else we possibly could do.”
Indeed, much of the conversation around Wainwright’s signing on Thursday surrounded two other players — free agent catcher Yadier Molina and Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado. Both have increasingly been linked to the team in recent days.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported on the rejuvenated Arenado discussions late on Thursday night. On Friday, a source confirmed to the News-Democrat that Cardinals players have been discussing the possibility in recent weeks.
Mozeliak, for his part, declined to comment on trade rumors or on the status of free agents like Molina or second baseman Kolten Wong, who’s not believed likely to be rejoin the club.
Wainwright, a camera-ready smile jumping through his webcam lens, was substantially more forthcoming.
“I think the guys who are running our organization are really, really smart businessmen, obviously, right,” he opined. “They don’t get where they are if they aren’t really smart, genius businessmen type minds.
“I think there’s some things that they might be thinking about or trying to pull off that will make people pretty happy. We’ll see.”
Mozeliak did confirm Friday that, despite recent clearances given to both the St. Louis Blues and Saint Louis University to host fans indoors, the Cardinals are still planning a reduced payroll for the 2021 season. Such a restriction could pose a substantial impediment to an outside addition, even if Molina were to sign at a substantial discount from the $20 million he was set to earn in 2020 before the onset of the pandemic.
Molina is currently playing for the Puerto Rican club Criollos de Caguas in the Caribbean Series. He is not expected to sign with any Major League team before his club’s elimination or the end of that series on February 6, in part because his status as a Major League free agent prevents his being forbidden from participation as an injury risk.
“I think his market was a little slower than he expected it to be,” Wainwright said. “Deep down, I don’t think teams think we’re going to leave St. Louis, me and Yadi.”
This winter marks the first time that Molina has reached free agency in his career. Wainwright did so in each of the past two years, but said that he didn’t seriously consider offers from any other clubs until this year.
He found the process “really fun.”
“This year was a different situation in that I actually had suitors,” Wainwright said. “I had teams that were interested and I had a little bit of patience, and I was perfectly at ease in the process of waiting. I don’t know why, what that was all about. It was a fun time.”
Wainwright described a number of teams — “good teams” — as being “hot on me” early in free agency. As skepticism rose that he was likely to leave St. Louis, some of those offers cooled.
They were revived in recent days, as Wainwright acknowledged having, “three or four offers this week. Good offers. If I’m going to be honest, I had a couple offers more than I signed for.”
The austerity measures which have gripped the industry this winter have created especially extreme stagnation in the National League’s central division. Before the Cardinals’ deal with Wainwright and the Chicago Cubs’ move to sign outfielder Joc Pederson, no player this winter had signed a free agent contract with any team in the division for more than $1.5 million.
The $199 million remaining on Arenado’s deal remains an extreme outlier, and while the Rockies might be willing to absorb some of that financial burden, the Cardinals would still seek a short term financial offset in order to hit this year’s budget goals.
While retaining Wainwright is an important first step for a club that remains likely to be the best of a middling division, the time for creativity and aggression may be rapidly approaching.
“There’s a lot of rumors floating around the industry right now and I imagine those things will probably continue, but there’s not a whole lot I can add to those other than just recognize that they’re out there,” Mozeliak said.
“Still time to improve the club, still time to look at things. We’re going to remain open minded and see what else we possibly could do.”
