The St. Louis Cardinals have five players with between three and six years of major league service who were not already under contract for 2013. All five – relievers Mitchell Boggs, Jason Motte, Edward Mujica and Marc Rzepczynski, plus third baseman David Freese – are eligible to have their salary for next season decided via arbitration. Jaime Garcia would have joined them had he not already signed a long-term contract covering his arbitration-eligible years.
The first step with the five was on the Cardinals. The club needed to declare its intention to enter the process. Alternatively, the team had the right to not offer a contract – called non-tendering the player – making him an immediate free agent.
Clubs would do this if they fear the contract amount the player could earn via arbitration would be more than the team would like to pay.
In the case of the Cardinals’ five, all were reportedly offered contracts for 2013 by Friday night’s deadline of midnight Eastern. From that point forward, players and team remain firmly committed to one another. The only question that remains is how much the players will make next season.
The two sides will exchange amounts that indicate their respective views of what the player should be paid in 2013. Of course, the player will expect to earn more than the team will likely offer. If discussions between the two do not lead to an agreement by February, one of the two amounts will be selected by an arbitrator following a hearing at which each side presents its case.
Since 1999 marked the last time the Cardinals actually went to hearing with a player, a more peaceful resolution is a virtual certainty for all five.
Other than the actual salaries TBD, there is no suspense – or is there?
Despite the Cardinals’ non-eventful deadline, the non-tender date has created potential opportunity for them, as other clubs created instant free agents.
Useful players can be sometimes be found as a result. For example, this is how David Eckstein became a Cardinal, after the Angels non-tendered him during the 2004-2005 off-season.
So a new focus of Cardinals watchers pondering potential additions for the 2013 season should be on the non-tender list. Perhaps a left-handed reliever, a middle infielder or a right-handed outfielder with some punch can be found.
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Lefty bullpen help still available
Sean Burnett
Rich Hill
Will Ohman
Randy Choate
Tom Gorzelanny
Mike Gonzalez
Dana Eveland
JP Howell
Manny Parra
Chris Seddon
Joe Beimel
Dan Schlereth
Gorzelanny was non-tendered by Nats and should be picked up quickly.Schlereth was NTed by the Tigers and has injury concerns.His Dad was the cheapshot chop blocking OG from the Denver Broncos.Burnett was big dollars …………I think i read he turned down 3 million per year from Nats.
Parra has injury issues.Beimel was bad in 2012.So was Ohman.If i recall Rich Hill was okay in 2012.JP Howell was okay.Choate is a LOOGY Eveland did decent in several roles with Baltimore.Whoever Mo gets it should help ease the load on Scrabble.
Some RH batting bench-role player options available who could be inexpensive.
Jorge Cantu 1B-3B..spent 2012 in AAA ball..some power .30 yrs old
Brandon Snyder 1B-3B-OF..non-tendered by Texas. .277 BA 3 HRs 26 Ks. 27 years old
Conor Jackson 1B-3B-OF………..minor league FA…………career .271 BA in big leagues.spent 2012 in AAA. 30 years old
Andy LaRoche 1B-3B-2B.Younger brother of Adam LaRoche.Spent 2012 in AAA.Has had big league times with Dodgers,Pirates.29 years old
Jeff Baker INF 31 years old.Non-tendered by Tigers.RH hitting bench guy who can back up at 2B-3B.
It seems the team is intending to trade a “young arm”. Skip will go. Possibly a multi- player deal bringing the Lefty they want. Maybe short stop depth. With two young center fielders in baseball, DG’s forced insinuation that Tavernas will be here in two years…………screams 3/5yr planning. Now that they have convinced everyone that they have a pitching surplus……… which is very dangerous….They will instinctively cull their hoard.,,,,,,,,,,,,, why………. if they start running into trouble, fans are going to what to shoot the whole clip……..that blows up the all 5yr planning….destroying equity/value………….. as they put a damper on Miller mid season, so they couldn’t be pressured to show him early……… they have to somehow move off there “surplus fantasy” should they be in 4th place come June………fans will just be holding that trigger down……….. Lohse will be on a first place team one way or another…..that may chaff a little bit ……….. Which arm though?????????? They tried to move move Kelly once……. do they go for that Shields contract again, buffering any Wainwright leverage? I do see a surprise …. no cash move coming …… but hey, I have insider information………….
Strauss is tweeting the Cards are interested in a recent non tender. Some notables:
Tom Gorzelanny
Manny Parra
John Lannan
All lefties. Lannan is a starter but could be a reliever. I am not crazy about any of them, but I guess have to accept that the Cardinals budget requires shopping out of the clearance bin.
Actually, that is not what he said.
“I would think there is someone on the non-tender pile of major interest to Cardinals.”
Didn’t exactly go far out on the limb there…
Well, I got the info second hand cause I don’t follow Strauss. Whatever.
Not going to matter much to me because none of the players I would want would fit into the budget. And they are probably going to trade for Asdrubal Cabrera, so I am going to have to do plenty of nose holding I’m afraid.
I didn’t see it initially either, but your post led me to go and check. Just another example of how rumors can get twisted.