ST. LOUIS – Spring training begins in less than a week. While the St. Louis Cardinals seem content with this year’s retooled starting rotation, there could be room for improvement.
Two former Cy Young Award winners, Blake Snell and Trevor Bauer, remain available in the MLB free agent market. Bauer recently acknowledged he “would love to” play for the Cardinals, but to this point, St. Louis has not offered him a contract.
Bauer isn’t too far removed from his 2020 Cy Young season with the Cincinnati Reds. He last pitched at the MLB level in 2021 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Since then, Bauer has dealt a legal dispute in which a woman accused him of sexual assault. Bauer and the accuser settled the dispute last year, and he was never arrested nor charged in connection with a crime, according to the Los Angeles Times.
As legal matters progressed, Major League Baseball issued Bauer a two-year suspension in 2022, and the Dodgers ultimately released him from his long-term contract.
Bauer pitched for the Yokohama Bay Stars last year overseas in the professional baseball Japan Central League. He finished with an 11-4 record and a 2.59 ERA over 156.2 innings, building a case for a possible MLB return.
Now 33 years old, Bauer reportedly claims he would be willing to pitch for the MLB league minimum this year with contract incentives.
With that in mind, one Cardinals fan on X (formerly Twitter) replied to a tweet from Bauer on Wednesday and encouraged him to join the Cardinals. Bauer sent the following reply:
“I would love to. Sonny [Gray] is one of my favorite guys in baseball. Cards haven’t offered me a contract though so [shrug emoji].”
What does this mean for the Cardinals?
St. Louis signed three former All-Stars (Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn) to presumably join the rotation in the early weeks of the offseason. Based on experience and contracts, it seems Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz will round out the rotation, if healthy.
Cardinals lead executive John Mozeliak spoke with KMOX’s Tom Ackerman last week and seems fond of the current state of the rotation. Among his remarks:
“Right now, I don’t think we’ll be in the starting pitching market [for the rest of the offseason] given that we have five starters, and they’re all reasonably compensated. So I doubt we would do something there unless something came up that we thought we had to do.”
The Cardinals have a few other young pitchers who started at the MLB level last year in Matthew Liberatore, Drew Rom and Zack Thompson. For now, that seems to be the backup plan if there is an injury to one of the first five or the need for a sixth starter.
As the Cardinals work out of a rocky last season, which led to one of their worst records in decades, Bauer offers intrigue from his skillset and resume, but questions would loom as to how he fits in with the clubhouse culture. Reports have linked Bauer to some unusual antics during his runs with the Dodgers and Cleveland Guardians.
Given that history and the recent settlement, the Cardinals would likely need to consider if Bauer’s pitching profile and accomplishments outweigh his personal experiences. Without a contract to this point, it appears they do not.
Blake Snell is another accomplished pitcher on the free agent market, but will likely command a nine-figure deal. Former Cardinals lefty Jordan Montgomery, coming off a strong finish with the Texas Rangers last year, also remains a free agent. Both have Snell and Montgomery have Scott Boras as their lead agent, so they will probably continue to wait out until a contract that maximizes their potential earnings.
