As the 2016 season got underway, the Cardinals were feeling disrespected. Yes, they’d suffered a portentous NLDS loss to the Cubs the previous October, and then stumbled through a disappointing offseason, but from the top of the organization on down, they were adamant that they wouldn’t be relinquishing their NL Central crown without a fight. […]
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For a moment there, right after the Fowler signing, the Cardinals actually managed to convince some of us that they weren’t going to call it an offseason. The club, wrote Derrick Goold, “could become more aggressive than previously believed, turning toward free-agent sluggers Mark Trumbo and Edwin Encarnación as possible pursuits.” Maybe such a change […]
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With the Winter Meetings well underway, all indications are that the Cardinals’ pursuit of Dexter Fowler—the best outfielder on the free-agent market and a solid, straightforward answer to some of the club’s biggest needs—is a real thing. Ken Rosenthal reported late Monday night that the Cardinals had met with Fowler’s representatives and “made him an […]
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The Cardinals were neither long nor shy in signaling one of their top priorities heading into the offseason. Days after finishing the season 17½ games back of the Cubs and one game short of a wild-card spot, John Mozeliak acknowledged—as straightforwardly as the circumlocutory bow-tie enthusiast has ever acknowledged anything—that the club would seek an upgrade in center […]
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It’s hard to be all that disappointed by news you knew was coming. I never doubted for a second that the Cardinals were committed to moving forward with Mike Matheny as manager, so I barely reacted to Thursday’s announcement that he’d agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in the dugout through the 2020 season. I […]
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ARMAGEDDON — Within an eleven-hour period, approximately eight of which you slept through, the bad guys won the World Series and the Cardinals responded by handing their bumbling cultist manager a three-year extension. A half hour later, amid a storm of (justified) pessimism, Jaime García’s $12 million option for 2017 was exercised. Whatever else the […]
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