Dear Santa: Please deliver Christmas gifts to these St. Louis Cardinals in need
No, Virginia, there isn’t a Baseball Santa Claus.
Or, at least, there isn’t one unless you’re a Mets fan, engorged with holiday delight as owner Steve Cohen deposits another $300 million present under your tree. For the fans of the 29 teams whose owners behave as though money is finite and they have budgets to attend (it’s not, really, and they don’t, really; all of that is fake), wishing for a Christmas miracle isn’t likely to be an excellent use of time.
If, however, the Cohen Claus tumbles off your roof and you find yourself in possession of a magical business card which doubles as an entrapping employment agreement, please do at least consider delivering some of these gifts to folks in and around the St. Louis Cardinals who might be in need.
Paul DeJong and Jake Woodford — a new team
Two players who seemed unlikely to be in the organization come the arrival of spring training are now overwhelming favorites to at least make it to the end of the year, increasing the likelihood they’ll be reporting to Jupiter as Cardinals. It’s not clear what either will be doing when they get there.
After a couple exciting series once he rejoined the club from the minors, DeJong continued his years-long offensive spiral that now has him relegated to a defense-first (defense-only) replacement at short who could also see himself sprinkled around the league. With $11 million in guaranteed money remaining on his contract, it’s difficult to find a new home for a player whose best hope for production is a wish and a dream that’s four seasons old.
Starting over might not help, but it’s hard to see how it could possibly hurt.
Woodford has the opposite issue — he succeeds at getting guys out, and it’s not clear that those in a position to influence his future have noticed. The Cardinals spoke about a need for him to refine his breaking ball during one of his many dispatches to Memphis, and he did so, and then he was buried on the depth chart.
His 2022 ERA was 2.23, his FIP was 3.13, and his WHIP was a whisper over 1.1. He may not miss bats, but he certainly outpitches the peripherals of others who rely solely on defense. It’s not clear he’s even the Cardinals’ seventh-highest option on the depth chart for starting pitchers heading into the holiday. Elsewhere, he’d be a solid 4, pushing a 3. He deserves a chance to show it.
John Mozeliak — an edit button
The most stunning takeaway from the team’s end of season press conference was the repeated pronouncements payroll would increase with little to no moderation in tone. The Cardinals, Mozeliak said, were financially healthy thanks to swarms of baseball’s best fans coming out to see living legends one last time, and the club was ready to flex that muscle.
It was a curious pronouncement, in part, because it was hard to see how they’d spend all that money even if they were so inclined. Signing Willson Contreras to the largest free agent deal ever for an entirely new player certainly helped, but the increase is marginal rather than of magnitude, and even then relies on a little bit of tricky accounting.
Perhaps when faced with a question he felt he’d already answered several times, Mozeliak would instead opt for circumspection. Then again, if you pledge an increase and just slightly clear the bar, it becomes someone else’s — it’s the writers, it turns out — problem to explain it.
Giovanny Gallegos — a Polaroid camera
Thanks to his Instagram posts, interested observers may have noticed the reliable fireman took his family on a whirlwind vacation through Europe this winter. Seemed like they had a great time, and Polaroids are back to being cool again, so I’m sure he’d appreciate it.
The baseball fan in your life — tickets to the 63rd Annual St. Louis Baseball Writers Dinner
We’re back! Come see the NL MVP, a parcel of Gold Glovers, and a handful of Hall of Famers up close and personal! Tickets are available online, and they’re the best kind of present — the kind you can buy at home in your pajamas because you forgot to buy something else.
Nolan Arenado — vindication of his foresight
Arenado’s decision not to opt out of the five remaining years of his contract was the expected path, but it was still met with relief throughout the organization. Given the rush to spend new CBA dollars by those flush with cash after a prosperous return to normalcy, it’s not hard to imagine his exceeding the $144 million he’s still owed on the open market.
Instead, happy with his team, reassured by the front office, and confident in what’s being built, Arenado is locked in. His commitment is to being part of a winner, and in declining to chase maximum money, his gamble is that he’s in the spot to make that happen.
For his sake and the sake of those invested either financially or emotionally in the St. Louis Cardinals, Baseball Santa would be better off by many reckonings if he simply allowed Arenado to be right.
