For the second consecutive year, heavy trade deadline rumors are surrounding Matt Holliday and the St. Louis Cardinals, only this time the outfielder is Oakland property, not that of the Colorado Rockies.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reported Thursday morning that the Cardinals “might be edging closer” to meeting Oakland’s asking price for Holliday, a free agent following this season. That price is reportedly top Cards minor league prospect, Memphis third baseman Brett Wallace.
The Chronicle’s report goes on to state the Cardinals’ “other option essentially would be” Washington outfielder Josh Willingham. It does not explain why these are apparently the only two fish in the sea.
ESPN’s Buster Olney lines up with the Chronicle’s report, quoting a source familiar with the negotiations that puts the odds at 50-50. Olney mentions the Cards have known for weeks that Wallace is required by Oakland to make the deal, but perhaps the A’s will agree to cover some of Holliday’s salary.
Holliday makes $13.5 million this season or has about $6 million to go on the final year of a two-year, $23 million deal signed with the Rockies prior to the 2008 season.
SI.com’s Jon Heyman is also in the camp that says the Cards are “seriously pursuing” Holliday. Heyman only states that Wallace is “in the mix” as Oakland’s take, however.
Finally, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal has chimed in quoting his sources as saying both “there is nothing going on” while also labeling the Cardinals interest in Holliday as only “mild”.
Who knows what or who to believe?
Personally, I am not even focused on the money. I am among those against giving up six Major League seasons of Wallace for two months of Holliday. There is always the chance that Holliday will like St. Louis and want to stay, but Scott Boras is his agent.
For every Kyle Lohse that spurns free agency, there are many more Boras clients that hit the open market. A couple of potential compensation draft picks received if Holliday walks after the season are not enough to change my view.
There is allot of “group” drumbeating going on Brian. Mo wants to be seen as active, the A’s want to get the bidding on this guy going. I’ve been watching him. He could help a bundle in the right environment. His true free agent value right now is completely unknown. He is still a “bright white convertible” that could be turned lose for draft picks in 2010. BD has a little dry powder thats not do till next year in the Lugo payout. He might be getting a little wild. (doubt it)
Yikes. I’ve been reading about these rumors all over the place as well. I really don’t want to see them give up Wallace for a half-year rental. Do they really believe that their current team is so strong that it would be worth making a push right now at the risk of future seasons?
Does anyone know Mo well enough to say if he will cave under pressure.
Whose pressure? He’s already made two more trades than last year.
He didn’t jump for Holliday last year at the deadline and didn’t again over the winter. Even if he does make the trade, I wouldn’t attribute the reason as folding under pressure.
Just because we don’t have a Duncan/Lugo thread here, I’d like to state that I’d be exceedingly happy if Lugo could man second base against LHP over Skip.
Skip 2009:
vs LHP: 69 AB, .232 AVG, .554 OPS, 6 R
vs RHP: 264 AB, .322 AVG, .815 OPS, 48 R
Skip 2008:
vs LHP: 119 AB, .168 AVG, .423 OPS, 9 R
vs RHP: 421 AB, .340 AVG, .861 OPS, 78 R
Nutlaw, I guess you are implying Lugo is better?
Lugo is better against LHP than Schu has been, but Schu has improved a lot. I wouldnt mind seeing Skip take a few starts in left, unless Ankiel gets hot like he can. We really need to cut down on the dead spots in the lineup.
Skip went to 2nd because we were stacked with good hitting outfielders and Tony wanted to get more than 3 of them in the lineup. That situation no longer applies but the idea of moving people around to get as many hitters in the lineup as possible still does. If Rick comes around, move skip back.
Sure, Lugo is better against LHP. Of course, most blindfolded children could probably hit lefties better than Schumaker, so that’s probably not saying much.
I’d surely hate to see this trade made. I think Wallace is special and will be for us for a long time (hopefully). Holliday has had his inflated mile high stats exposed by playing in Oakland this year. I don’t think it’s a secret that his splits favor Coors field HEAVILY. Now that he has the proper value attached I don’t think we want to be embarrassed on the trade market by Oakland again. I’d like to give them Ottavino, Craig and Hoffpauer. Fair enough for two months rent. Or if tonight’s game against Washington was an audition for certain Nationals players, it looks like Adam Dunn really wants to play for us. However, I’d be more than happy with Willingham too.
Mo and the Cards seem to be feeling aggressive in relation to making trades. The trade for DeRosa was an aggressive move. Chris Perez is a genuine Faberge egg and we probably gave up another good player too. I am relieved that DeRosa’s hitting seems unaffected by his wrist injury, to my surprise.
The Cards know what they are doing in terms of Matt Holliday. They wanted to land Jason Bay last summer and he has been strong for the Red Sox. The Cards wanted to land Brian Fuentes in free agency and he has pitched very well for the Angels.
The Cards see Holliday as an established star LF who can bat cleanup, like Jason Bay. Holliday can steal bases and play good D. If the Cards land Holliday, they must want to do a big bucks multi-year deal with Boras like they did last September with Lohse. The number of impact players in the game is limited, so the Cards are looking ahead to a post-Glaus era and trying to replace Troy’s contribution to the batting order with another established productive veteran who can bat behind Albert.
Wallace should have a fine ML future, but is not a strong defender at 3B. Dunn and Willingham are not strong defensive OFs. If Mo wants to land Holliday, he is going to have to pay the piper. Its a tough call for Mo and its hard to make all the fans happy all the time.
ESPN just stated that this trade actually happened.
I don’t see the Cards shelling out the money needed to sign Holliday past this season. They’re going for a win now and trading away the future. Who plays LF and 3B next season after DeRosa and Holliday leave town?
I don’t see this move guys. Billy Bean is desperate though, he gave up a good outfielder for the Holiday promotional. It didn’t work by the way. Oakland plays to an empty house. He has to turn him before the 31. Wallace is most popular locally because he is a bay area boy. Bean must act or be stuck with a couple of expensive draft picks. If it comes off it will be within 48 hrs of the deadline. If he keeps hitting he will draw more interest.
Sorry Nut…………I must have fallen asleep. I hope for good things, even if its just a 1/2 year.
Well, it’s sure getting interesting at least! I may not recognize a team fielding DeRosa, Holliday, and Lugo together but you can’t fault the front office for not spending to back up their strong rotation. Hopefully this ends up being a big season.
I think that the Cardinals recognize that they have a shot this year. They have two solid front line starters, a decent pen, Pineiro is pitching excellent right now, so they might as well go for it. I can’t wait to see what Pujols does with a great player like Holliday hitting behind him. I think that Wallace was a man without a position, at least in the near term, so this makes sense, if they win it all. I think this clearly gives the Cardinals a better chance this year and I think that if you have a shot to win it all, you go for it. You don’t know what next year will bring (except that it will either bring extra draft picks if you don’t resign) and I think its not a bad move to go for it today.
I have a bunch of emails asking my view of the Matt Holliday trade. I will recap what I just said on MLB.com a short while ago.
The jury will be out until at least October and perhaps longer.
If the Cardinals can convince Scott Boras and Holliday to re-sign with St. Louis for a fair price, then it is a good trade. If Holliday walks, then six years of Brett Wallace plus two top draft picks was too much for two months of Holliday (plus two picks) – unless the Cardinals win the 2009 World Series, that is. In that case, all sins are forgiven.
I spoke with Tony La Russa before the press conference with Holliday, GM John Mozeliak and La Russa and will be posting my thoughts from Philly for Scout.com subscribers Friday evening.
Obviously we are going for the WS this year, which is great of course. However, if we don’t make it and we’ve obviously vastly overpaid for Holliday, then we are up the creek again.
Brett Wallace becomes the new Dan Haren that will haunt MO for years to come. A three month rental for one of the top hitting prospects in the game. God this scares the crap out of me. One bitten, twice shy I guess.
I can’t see Holliday passing up free agency and we won’t back up the Brinks truck for him, seeing as the youth movement was designed to free up money for Albert. I despise Borass with a passion and I can’t see him letting Holliday pass on a bigger commission.
Lohse was an exception because he was a very average pitcher coming off a career year. Borass was smart to let the Cardinals throw big money at Kyle early. The chances were high that Lohse would go back to being himself.
Let’s just all hope that this is now one fun and exciting ride to the post-season. Go Cards.