***Official 2021 STL Cardinals Thread***

[Marco Polo]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

We should not be buyers this year. Don’t even pretend. Don’t trade our top players for anything short term. Just play for next year. Hopefully someone other than Mo will be giving out the next FA contracts but that’s probably a pipe dream.

I checked cots, fangraphs and spotrac.They all basically say we have around $95 million committed in 2022 to Goldy, Arenado, Mikolas, Martinez and Dejong. No one else is guaranteed money, no dead money.

2021 salary total is $184.6 million. Say you bring Waino/Molina back for one more year that’s $20-$25 million tops. If the Cards keep it the same that leaves an guesstimated $40-$45 million we could possibly spend on FA’s. Basically Carps and Fowler’s money. Trade Martinez, you get another $17 million freed up.

Should be enough to get a #3 starter and a good DH bat in the lineup.

Edman
Carlson
New signee DH/RF $25- $30 million a year
Arenado
Goldy
O’’Neill
Dejong
Molina/C
Bader or replacement OF or Gorman
Pitcher
Someone DH’s, probably

That’s a more respectful lineup

Pitching:
Flaherty
Liberatore
New #3. $15 million a year
Thompson(long term)
Mikolas/Hudson/Martinez/Waino

I'll gladly take that lineup.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

I'll gladly take that lineup.

With O'Neill learning to lay off that outside slider a lot more often and Carlson looking to be a solution in the #2 hole, they lengthen the lineup. Put a solid middle of the order bat in there, add Gorman and maybe we can compete again.

But......... a middle of the order bat ain't going here for $30 million/3 years. They are going to want a longer commitment. Mo making those type of decisions hasn't ended well for us in a long time.There is risk for sure we are saddled with a Fowler/Carp contract for 3-4 bad years.

I'm seeing at least a 3 year window for us to compete starting next year. Trading the crucial elements needed for that window to compete this year is stupid.