The Cardinals Free-Agents: Coming Back?

On November 6th, the following Cardinals players will officially become free agents:

• Mark Ellis
• Pat Neshek
• Justin Masterson
• Jason Motte
• A.J. Pierzynski

None of these players received a qualifying offer from the Cardinals, meaning that there will be no extra draft picks if they are singed by another team.

VEB has stated that letting all 5 walk will save the Cardinals around 17 million dollars in payroll for 2015. But is that going to happen? Are the Cards going to let all 5 go?

Probably.

Mark Ellis – 100% gone

The biggest bust of the year for the team in terms of salary combined with on-field production. He played in 73 games and hit .180. His oWAR was a -7. And he earned 5.25M dollars. He was banged up and struggled to find a fit with the team all season. No chance Mozeliak goes back to this plan. None.

Pat Neshek – 85% gone

This is not a referendum on Neshek’s 2014 season. He was an All-Star and you could make a case that he was also the team MVP. The Cardinals would love to have him back.

BUT… baseball is a business. And Neshek has made about $750,000 less than Mark Ellis did last year… if you count his ENTIRE CAREER earnings.

Neshek deserves to get paid. And he will get paid. But if the price tag is too high, the Cardinals will pass and lean on younger, cheaper arms. Classic Cardinals pitching revival story. We’ll miss Pat.

Justin Masterson – 95% gone

I know. I know.

He looked pretty much terrible as a Cardinal. A gamble trade that came up snake-eyes. But the Cardinals starting rotation has had its fair share of injuries over the course of the past couple of seasons. If Masterson is willing to take a one year deal with an incentive laden contract, maybe – MAYBE – the Cardinals sign him as kind of 6th starter/insurance plan?

Now if he really wasn’t hurt at all and felt great in 2014, then this is a bad idea. I’m pretty sure your mom can throw her fastball harder than Masterson.

But while he probably doesn’t have All-Star caliber stuff anymore, having MLB arms around a team is never a bad idea just in case.

Jason Motte – 75% gone

This one hurts.

The guy the Cardinals nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award is universally respected around the team and baseball as a whole. He was an important part of the 2011 World Series team as the closer. He didn’t have a sterling 2014 comeback season from Tommy John surgery and won’t command a huge contract from the open market.

He appears to be a guy that the Cards could bring back at a very reasonable rate and no one in the stands would have a problem with it.

The reason he’s 75% gone? He just didn’t fit into the Cardinals plans late in the season. He was almost a mop-up man, getting very little action in anything resembling a close game. And when he did actually pitch – it was tee-ball, giving up 29 hits, 13 earned runs and7 HRs in 25 innings of work.

Motte would be inclined to come back – and probably has the best chances out of anyone in this group – the Cardinals, however, appear to have moved on at this point .

A.J. Pierzynski – 99% gone

He says he wants to play.

Maybe that changes during the winter, maybe it doesn’t. But with the cold bucket of water to the face that was Yadi on the DL, I can’t believe that back-up catcher isn’t a priority for the offseason for the Cardinals.

He was a great insurance plan in 2014 when Tony Cruz couldn’t quite cut it as the day-to-day starter. And it looks as if he could be a serviceable 2nd stringer for at least a few teams. Unless the Cardinals get into a real bind (i.e. – unexpected injuries), it’s hard to envision A.J. back in STL for 2015.

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