On December 8, 2015 the St. Louis Cardinals made a mistake. That was the day the Cardinals signed Mike Leake to a 5 year 80 million dollar contract. Today the Cardinals have done everything they can to rectify that mistake by trading Mike Leake & 17 million dollars to the Seattle Mariners (Cards received 21 year old IF Rayder Ascanio but that’s not what this deal is about). An outsider might view this as a bad move by St. Louis, but what this really does is free up 38 million dollars for future spending. This money can be spent in a number of ways to improve the Cardinals when it was being “wasted” on Mike Leake . This is 100% a salary dump, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
Leake had a decent year in 2016 even though people were quick to pile on him. He went 9-12 with a 4.69 ERA – not good by any measure, however if you look at other advanced metrics his numbers weren’t as bad as they seemed. This season in April Leake was OUTSTANDING going 3-1 with a 1.31 ERA. In every month that has passed Leake’s numbers have declined. In August, Leake was 0-3 with a 8.88 ERA. Mike Leake has been trending down the entire year, yet the Cardinals found a team to take on apx. ⅔ of his remaining salary. Leake may turn into the pitcher the Cardinals thought they were getting during the next 3 years in Seattle, however the Cardinals couldn’t take that risk with the accumulating pitching depth in the minor leagues.
The Cardinals are saving 38 million dollars to spend on a potential closer (Rosenthal Tommy John Surgery), a middle of the order bat, a strong bullpen arm, etc. Trading Leake also opens up a rotation spot. This, in my opinion, is just as important as all of the millions of dollars the Cardinals saved by trading Leake. The rotation next year was going to be Leake, Martinez Wacha, Wainwright, and Weaver (with Jack Flaherty being a AAA ace and Alex Reyes probably being an important part of the bullpen or pushing for one of the rotation spots). Lance Lynn didn’t have a shot at being resigned as the Cardinals already had a full rotation with plenty of extra pitchers waiting in the wings. NOW the Cardinals could look at bringing Lance Lynn back (according to his quotes given to Hall of Famer Rick Hummel that doesn’t seem very likely), promoting Jack Flaherty (my choice) to the starting five, or giving Alex Reyes a spot in the rotation (I’d rather see him as a “bullpen swiss army knife”. Cardinal fans will get a sneak peak at Flaherty Friday as he will take Leake’s turn in the rotation against San Francisco. No matter what the Cardinals choose to do going forward, they should be getting more value out of their 25 man roster than they were with Leake.
Everyone keeps hearing about the Cardinals depth they have at the minor league levels. Whether it’s all of the Cardinal young OF, or all of their young arms – fans are intrigued at what they might do when called up to St. Louis. Trading Mike Leake immediately gives the Cardinals a look at what the future of the pitching staff might be going forward. All trades need time to see who the winner’s and loser’s are, however I feel like the Cardinals admitted they made a mistake with Leake and have done everything they can to fix their mistake. There was no sense in continuing the marriage with Mike Leake when there were many better options available. Thankfully “pitching hungry” Seattle made the Cardinals an offer they couldn’t refuse. Fans will be able to look back at August 30th 2017 as the day the 2018 roster started to take shape.
