It’s pretty clear now that the St. Louis Cardinals did not want Marcell Ozuna back

I find it odd that former St. Louis Cardinals cleanup hitter Marcell Ozuna allowed himself to be quoted lamenting the fact that he now plays for the Atlanta Braves.

“If I knew before it was going to happen like this, I would have taken it,” Ozuna told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about his decision to decline a qualifying offer from the Cardinals that would have paid him $17.8 million in 2020. “I thought the Cardinals were going to offer something (early), but they didn’t do that after I rejected the qualifying offer.”

I guess it’s a compliment to the Cardinals that Ozuna would rather play in St. Louis for what turned out to be $200,000 less than he got to head south and suit up for the Braves. But I wouldn’t exactly be thrilled if I was a member of the Atlanta front office, coaching staff or a player there. Who wants a guy on the team would rather be playing elsewhere? It makes me wonder if Ozuna is just dense (which sounds crazy, but I can’t count how many times I interviewed someone in my career with a notebook in hand, scribbling every word they said, only to have them say later “I didn’t know you were going to quote me on that”), if he was trying to take a dig at the St. Louis front office in front of the fans or if he’s just so upset about the situation that he couldn’t help himself.

It’s not as if the Cardinals gave Ozuna a reason to carry a torch for them. The team basically ghosted him as soon as he rejected the qualifying offer he was extended merely as a formality. It seems fairly obvious that, with rumors Ozuna would command a contract of $100 million or more, St. Louis was counting on sneaking the offer past Ozuna in order to collect a compensatory draft pick. The team never really wanted him at all.

It does make me wonder what the Cardinals were thinking. If they could have had a player of Ozuna’s ability’s for a one-year commitment at the qualifying offer price, why didn’t the team wouldn’t jump on it. Ozuna said the team told him there was no money in the budget. But didn’t front office leader John Mozeliak know that from the start of the offseason? Why didn’t he just tell Ozuna’s people that there was no chance of bringing him back — or at least that if he passed on the qualifying offer that there would be no other contract tendered — instead of repeatedly telling the media that he wasn’t “closing any doors? on bringing back the outfielder.

“Dollars and length matters, so those have to be resolved,” Mozeliak told the Post on Dec. 10. “I would think we’re still in the game. I don’t know if we’re front runners at all. We’re not closing any doors. Doors may get closed. It’s not our doing.”

Sure sounds like doors were closed to me, unless they thought that Ozuna was going to take a $2 million contract when the Cincinnati Reds were offering him three years and $50 million and Atlanta was offering $18 million for one season. That’s just being dishonest to the player and the fan base. I can accept it if the Cardinals made a strategic decision not to sign Ozuna. But, best case scenario, it seems like they just couldn’t make up their minds what to do.

Is a Nolan Arenado trade still possible?

One reason not to sign Ozuna would be to keep some payroll flexibility in case a deal for Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado materialized. That may still be in play as word from spring training is that Arenado isn’t speaking to the leadership of his team, still miffed about the Rockies refusal to not trade him nor do anything to improve the club. It’s likely that he’ll be available closer to the July trade deadline. But the Cardinals can’t count on staying in the race and being able to make a major deal like that mid-season. Bidding will be supercharged when the pennant races are playing out, costing St. Louis — or another eventual winning bidder — a lot more than a deal now.

As we all know, the much-rumored deal of landing Arenado over the winter turned out to be a mirage. Holding out for a better date to the prom than Ozuna, the Cardinals ended up being left at home.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.