Bringing back Yadier Molina was last move of big off-season for St. Louis Cardinals
The offseason has been ongoing for the St. Louis Cardinals for approximately four months, and for three months and three weeks, all was quiet.
In the last 10 days, however, a sea change has swept across a roster which has seen its most dramatic re-shaping in recent memory.
With a flurry of moves stretching back to the re-signing of pitcher Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals have acquired a new cornerstone at third base in Nolan Arenado, completed their set of legacy contracts with catcher Yadier Molina, and bid farewell to two lineup mainstays, as second baseman Kolten Wong signed a free agent contract with the Milwaukee Brewers and outfielder Dexter Fowler was traded to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
Molina met with the media on Tuesday, the last of a trio of players who president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said represented the three most important pieces in the team’s offseason.
“Mentally it was tough, to be honest with you,” Molina acknowledged. “I’ve known Mo for 20 years. I know he likes to move slow.”
Mozeliak conceded that the ponderous pace would not have been his preferred method for conducting business, but said he was content having acquired the three players on his wish list.
Molina, like Wainwright before him, referred to St. Louis as “my home,” and emphasized that returning to the Cardinals was always his first priority. In order to make room for that return, though, two other central pieces were shipped out.
Since Fowler first signed with the Cardinals prior to the 2017 season, he and Wong have combined for 3,075 plate appearances wearing the Birds on the Bat. Of 1,088 possible starts in the regular season games spread over those four years, they’ve made 723.
In neither case did the Cardinals seem particularly inclined to prevent the player’s leaving. Indeed, the Cardinals will pay all but $1.75 million of the $16.5 million owed to Fowler in the last year of his contract, deciding instead to seek value in clarifying an outfield situation that now has an uncontested spot available for phenom Dylan Carlson.
The decision to decline Wong’s option was one that he said, “caught me a little off guard,” during a teleconference on Friday in which he was introduced to the media in Milwaukee. Wong conceded that the financial impact of the pandemic forced difficult decisions for some teams, and said that the Cardinals “never really engaged” in offering him contract terms throughout his time as a free agent.
Even without the impact of COVID, however, it’s unclear whether the Cardinals might have pursued a similar strategy with Wong. Tommy Edman’s production in a utility role in each of the last two seasons makes him a natural successor to Wong at second base, and the ability to add Arenado stands as a transformational acquisition which alters both the short- and long-term fortunes of the franchise.
Mozeliak has said consistently throughout the winter that the club is seeking to decrease payroll, and by wrangling a deal which will see the Rockies pay Arenado’s 2021 salary, his team has engineered a situation where precisely that is possible, despite the series of changes.
Molina’s 2021 salary is $9 million, with performance incentives which could boost the value by an additional million dollars. He declined to speculate on signing future contracts, saying that he’s now taking things “year to year.”
The drastic changes will have ripple effects throughout the lineup.
Matt Carpenter now seems likely to fit best as a bench player in the last guaranteed year of his contract, though he could see time at second base or in left field in addition to his typical third base. Carpenter, too, would be likely to see time as the designated hitter in the event that the rule returns to the NL in 2021.
The Cardinals are also likely now to inquire about starting pitchers who could provide protection to a rotation which will be without Dakota Hudson and which is currently relying on a strong return from arm surgery by Miles Mikolas.
Highland native Jake Odorizzi remains on the market, though Mozeliak said Tuesday that the Cardinals would be unlikely to add any additional players before spring training with the possible exception of non-roster invitees signed to minor league contracts.
An arbitration hearing with staff ace Jack Flaherty took place last week, with a $900,000 gap between the contract filings made by the player and team.
With less than two weeks remaining before the team is set to assemble for a full squad workout in Jupiter, the Cardinals appear poised to fit an entire offseason’s worth of work into a 10-day stretch. In doing so, they’ve exercised the patience for which Mozeliak has preached while taking dramatic strides to remake a rudderless team into a behemoth which could steam to the front of its division.
Time remains for more significant changes, and if the last week has proven anything, it’s that the Cardinals are once again emphatically open for business.
