Cardinals Have Work To Do

Published: October 2, 2007, 9:04 pm

Tags: anthony reyes, atlanta braves, baltimore orioles, edgar renteria, joel pineiro, miguel batista, miguel tejada, st louis cardinals

Joe Strauss has had several insightful articles lately about the future of the Cardinals. Let's discuss. The Cardinals have $83.8MM committed to 12 players for 2008. Even worse, they don't know what they're going to get out of Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Juan Encarnacion, and Mark Mulder. They are spending $45MM on those five and may get very little production. Next year's payroll may approach $115MM on the high end, but that doesn't mean the Cards have $30MM to burn. Their 0-3 guys will earn roughly $5MM in aggregate, and the arbitration-eligible group may run another $5MM even if a few are cut loose. So I'm thinking more like $20MM to burn, and Walt Jocketty will have to stretch that money pretty far. The Cardinals need a power hitter, two starters, and a shortstop. Tony La Russa, if he returns, won't be "going young." Joel Pineiro could be one of the starters, but if the Cards view him as a cheap #5 they're going to

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