Join Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold for his live chat at noon Monday
Bring your Cards questions and comments to Monday’s noon live chat.
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They did say that. DeWitt told me they would have included one, but that they felt the discussion of a "lifetime" contract meant just that -- a lifetime, a promise for post-career role, too. Countering the Angeles is not really for them to do right now. Pujols has the personal services contract in place with the Angels. It is a 10-year, $10-million deal and it does not activate until after he retires. He has the option to accept or turn it down. Again, he can turn it down if he does not want to do it, if he wants to pursue something else. But until that point that contract exists. It's the last contract of its type. MLB no longer permits personal service contracts. I asked Pujols about this, and he told me he's worried about getting his swing right for this season, not the decision he'll make at the end of the season about returning to the team that DFA'd him.
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Hi Derrick! Wondering if you mind sharing what you know about MLB regular season scheduling for the future. I heard somewhere that the league will be changing their criteria starting in 2023. I for one, am not thrilled with playing each NC Central Division team 19 times per year. UGH! That's too much. I like the Cards playing AL divisions (home & away series) once every 3 years - that's perfect! I don't like the NL Central only playing the NL East and NL West teams one home/away series annually - that's not enough! Has there been any word from the league that can give me hope of adding games from those two divisions to the Cards' season schedule? Thanks!
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Here is what is going to happen in the coming years with the schedule.-- The Cardinals will play the other 29 teams at least once every year, starting in 2023.-- They will play their AL rival (KC) home and away. They will play the other 14 teams either home or away. Odd years could be in the Bronx. Even years could bring the Yankees to Busch Stadium, and the same for the Mariners, Twins, Angels, Red Sox, White Sox ...-- There will be 14 division games, seven at home, seven on the road.Here's a fun little twist, a little newsy tidbit if you will:In the current schedule for 2023, the Cardinals are headed to London to host two games against the Cubs. Those two games will be two of the seven home games vs. the rivals. The rough draft of the schedule has the Cubs playing those other five games all that once. That's right, a five-game series at Busch between the Cardinals and Cubs. That will be bonkers. The 2023 schedule is not final, and it's subject to change. The Cardinals do expect to be the team selected for London, and multiple sources have told the Post-Dispatch that's MLB's plan.
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I can't imagine Albert wanting to spend 10 years promoting the Angels after they unceremoniously DFA'd him last year. You know him better than any chatter....think he'll turn it down? If he wants to stay around the game, I'm sure the Cards would open their arms to any opportunity he'd want to pursue?
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I don't know. It's $10 million. He would be turning down $10 million. Would you turn down $10 million -- or four times his salary this year, or even less 1/20th of what he made in the contract. That's a lot of money to walk away from. There's a lot of good he could do with that money, after all.
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I'm so glad you ask. It is not true. It's not even close to true. I'm not sure where that number is coming from. One source that has been used often does not yet include the players with less than three years of service time. Another source that I know was not cited but was used in a recent story is talking about the entire 40-man roster and the total payroll from 2021 while only comparing that to the opening day roster for the 2022 Cardinals. That's the difference between 46+ players and 28 players. It's not apples to apples.It's hard to compare the 2021 total payroll expense to the 2022 opening payroll expense because the season hasn't been played yet, and there will be movements that promotions and additions and the like to change the payroll. One is a finished product. The other is a beginning.Got some time? Let's do this together.I took the 2021 opening day roster and included all of the salaries for the players on that team that day or on the injured list, or in the case of Fowler, what he was owed by the Cardinals. I did not include signing bonuses. Arenado's cost for the Cardinals in 2021 was zero because what they owed him has been deferred and the rest was paid by Colorado. The total, including about $24m on the injured list, was $137.6m for the opening day roster. That was a downturn from previous years, as the team said they would have coming out of 2020.The opening day roster and IL, not including bonuses, for the current team announced today is $151-$152m.You are welcome to check my math.As for Stroman, it became clear that the Cardinals identified several pitchers to pursue, saw Matz as both the preferred signing as a lefty and the value play to maximize with their defense, and when they got that deal done, they pivoted to shop for swingmen, which Stroman is not.
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And their style of pitching, yep. You're going to see Pujols against some of the changeup righties who don't go for the big velocity, and you're going to see Nootbaar against those upper-elevation, high-velocity righties. He's going to matchup the hitters based on the style of pitcher, not just handedness.
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Regarding salaries...in addition to Cot's there is another great, real-time, resource at Sportrac.
www.spotrac.com -
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No, not specifically. The Post-Dispatch reported multiple times about the heated meetings between Shildt and the coaching staff midway through the season about the hitting approach and how things needed to change. I used the description given to me by a source and confirmed by multiple people in the room about how the conversations "got raw" as Shildt and the coaches tried to come to an agreement (with some players) on how to amend/correct/change what Shildt thought was an erosion of their approach at the plate. He told the coaches what he said publicly -- that they were too one-dimensional. And it was Marmol who helped bridge the gap, improve communication between all parties, and ultimately -- later in the season -- the coaches and front office used that as an example of how meetings that generated friction netted results that showed the strength of coming together as a staff. Mozeliak used it as an example when he said, on the record to me at Dodger Stadium, that his plan was to bring everyone back because of what the staff was able to do.
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Hey Derrick, thinking about your comment that the Cards are either going to stick with what they've got or "aim higher" with any potential moves. They've so far missed out entirely on the A's fire sale, but one pitcher remains who could really help to fortify a suddenly-iffy rotation: Frankie Montas. I don't know if there might be concerns about his tremendous increase in workload last year, but I'd think he would cost less than Manaea while still being a far better option than the VerHagen/Woodford/bullpen/??? unknown. I also get that Oakland will ask for *some* talent in return, but they're not taking anybody's top prospects yet and we know the owners want to move to Vegas and these moves have all the energy of Kroenke tanking in order to kill local support and ease his path out of town. If you had to guess, do you think there's any chance Mo' and Girsch are kicking the tires here, or is it folly to get my hopes up?
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I have not been able to connect the Cardinals to Oakland, not beyond anything other than they talked. No sense of movement or matching up. That could be the limit of my reporting, and I'm always trying to improve. That also is an example of what the A's sought, and the Cardinals are just not interested. They're more likely to bet on their ability to identify a VerHagen as the answer than give up a Thompson for a short-term maybe. I get that new and different is appealing, but Oakland isn't exactly making Scherzer available for trade. Good pitchers. Helpful pitchers. Second coming of Corbin Burnes? Not quite. The Cardinals, by rule, refuse to talk about anything related to free agents and trades, so info isn't coming from them. Never does to the local media. Albert Pujols had been introduced to the fans at Roger Dean Stadium and still a front office executive declined comment to even acknowledge the obvious about signing him to a reporter. Go figure.Their eyes are set on internal options as of today. They will scan the horizon once they see how April plays out -- or whenever they have a better sense of Flaherty's return.
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