No need to pussyfoot around with holiday pleasantries when we’ve got a headline on STLToday.com like this:
Go on…
Bill DeWitt Jr. and John Mozeliak would like you to believe they’re committed to win in 2017, but those claims will ring hollow until they make another significant addition to the lineup.
Here’s a list from CBS Sports tracking the top 75 MLB free agents this offseason. As of this posting, the only remaining guys in the top 20 that aren’t signed are:
- Jose Bautista (11)
- Mark Trumbo (12)
- Matt Wieters (16)
- Mike Napoli (17)
- Jason Hammel (18)
I’m not shy about spending other people’s money, but I’m not sure if signing any of those dudes is going to make the Cardinals more than a teeny bit better in 2017 than what they’ve got now.
After missing the playoffs in 2016, DeWitt is hoping fans don’t realize his front office is failing miserably for the second offseason in a row.
The Cards have inked 2 of the top 50 players (according to that same CBS ranking) so far this offseason. Both signings (Dexter Fowler and Brett Cecil) fill needs that the Cardinals had to address before the 2017 season. I think that Marlins fans would have a better case for “failing miserably” this offseason.
Of all the cities where I’ve covered baseball — Los Angeles, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., New York, Houston and St. Louis — this is the only place where fans praise ownership for banking the profits instead of spending more to compete.
Ostensibly this was a column about Cleveland signing Edwin Encarnacion instead of the Cardinals. And while we can debate on the utility of Encarnacion in the Cardinals lineup and if it would have been a worthy gamble, what we can’t debate on is the validity of this point.
I’ve said for a looooong time that if the Cardinals sign a player or don’t sign a player… the ticket & beer prices will go up next year.
So in a coin-flip decision like Encarnacion, I’d rather see the Cardinals sign him and figure out what to do if he’s a bust as opposed to padding the bottom line of the team.
The Best Fans in Baseball deserve better. It’s time for DeWitt to make another major addition to the 2017 Cardinals or be honest with the fans about the team’s 2017 aspirations.
Ortiz kind of touches on it in a paragraph I’ve didn’t excerpt above – the paradigm has shifted.
The Cubs beat the Cards by 17.5 games in 2016. The Cubs, by doing absolutely nothing, are going to be better in 2017 (remember Kyle Schwarber missed most of ’16) and the addition of Fowler and Cecil aren’t enough to close the gap between the two teams.
But…
Free agency isn’t going to provide an easy path back to NL Central glory.
In fact, free agency is kind of on its last legs. Yes, they’ll always be free agents (at least for the near future), but REAL game changers like Mike Trout or Kris Bryant or Bryce Harper? They’re getting long-term deals before they get close to hitting the open market.
The hard truth is that the Cardinals are doing the right thing.
They’re just trying to get into the playoffs and roll the dice. Baseball breaks weird in October (cough… 2011… cough) and World Championships count the same whether you’ve started the month with the best record and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs or the second Wild Card berth.
So while I (and we) appreciate Ortiz’s willingness to take on the role of watchdog for the fan and go HAM on the front office with flagrant #hottakes for our enjoyment… in this particular case, I’m not sure the venom is warranted.
Photo: SB Nation
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