The Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline comes Friday, July 31 at 4:00 pm eastern time. During now and that deadline there should be several moves made throughout the league. The Cardinals already got to work this morning, sending Rob Kaminsky for Brandon Moss. The club will also need to wait to hear any injury news about Matt Holliday after he re-aggravated a quad injury last night. General Manager John Mozeliak is set to become busy, and now he might have a little more help.
As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported early this morning the Cardinals have come to terms for a 15-year $1 billion dollar television contract with Fox Sports Midwest. The new deal is not set to begin until the 2018 season, their current deal expires in 2017. It should be specifically noted that the current contract is not an extension, but a new deal in itself.
The club can now catch-up to the baseball trend of large television contracts and the Cardinals have missed out on large television dollars over the past few seasons. For perspective, the Cardinals will profit $35MM from their current deal in 2017, but from rights fees alone the team will earn $55MM in 2018 with the new deal, according to Goold.
The Cardinals haven’t been strapped for cash like many of the teams in the NL Central have been in the past. Their payroll will typically sit anywhere between $105MM-$120MM. However, this new source of revenue makes it clear that the Cardinals can take what they currently have and add a significant contract.
Stability
Mozeliak was quoted as the new deal will be providing “stability” for the club. Stability comes in many forms and now it appears the Cardinals will able to keep their core of young players in St. Louis as they approach arbitration and free agency. With the additional influx of income each season the Cardinals will be able to offer contracts to players such as Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal and Kolton Wong. All of which appear to be rising stars (three made the All-Star Game) and will certainly become more expensive as their level of play rises.
The Cardinals will need to extend their young stars but as extension deals of Lance Lynn and Matt Carpenter come to a close they will need this money to re-sign and keep all of these players. Free agency can help to gut a team, lack of dollars can cause for trades when things aren’t going as well. However, having additional income can help maintain the status quo. The status quo for the Cardinals has simply been dominance and a run of National League Championship Series appearances with one World Series since 2011.
Coming closer to an even playing field
The Cardinals will never be the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox in terms of spending. These comes two-fold. The first point being – the Cardinals simply cannot afford to have the likes of four-to-five huge contracts on their team – while this new deal will certainly be able to add expensive players, they are not on that level. The second point being – the Cardinals and John Mozeliak don’t operate by overspending for free agents – Mozeliak has been great at having a plan, keeping that plan and staying calm when things do not go well. The Red Sox signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez this off-season, the Cardinals couldn’t do that and wouldn’t do that. Not only did the Sox pour massive dollars in two players but they let Jon Lester, their only staple in the rotation, walk due to dollar figures. The Sox are currently in last place in the AL East and they are going through an abysmal year.
The Dodgers appear ready to add David Price via trade during the deadline. That would give massive contracts in the rotation with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Price if a deal were to be completed. It wouldn’t be farfetched to think that the Dodgers would re-sign Price and give a new deal to Greinke. While the Cardinals wouldn’t be able to do this, they could give good contracts to Lynn, Wacha and Martinez, signing them before they hit free-agency, which typically leads to more team-friendly deals.
Flexibility
John Mozeliak should be credited with being one of the best GM’s in all of baseball. Sure, winning is done by the players on the field, the managers that setup the lineup and the rotation, the scouting done to draft players, development for upcoming players. But, in making day-to-day operations, Mozeliak deserves credit for what he has help setup and has been able to maintain.
The Cardinals are not a team with a pocket full of money, but they also aren’t the Athletics or the Rays. They have money to spend and they spend it in the best way they can. Often, they spend it better than other teams. But, one would think they have missed out on a player or two over the years because of a couple extra million dollars.
That may no longer be the case.
Giving one of the better GMs in the game extra spending money can help bring in a player the team needs. While having additional income can lead to overspending, and every team will overspend at some point, how can you not feel great about Mo and company having some more to spend?
While it’s unlikely the team will start a spending-spree in 2015 especially at this deadline when the team needs offensive firepower, it won’t be long before the dollars will become a factor.
