Decisions Made

The Cardinals announced yesterday evening that they had made their arbitration decisions .  As expected by almost everyone, they tendered arbitration to Matt Holliday, Joel Pineiro and Mark DeRosa, while allowing Troy Glaus to leave without strings.

To me, that means that they are fairly confident that someone is going to come along with a better deal for Pineiro.  I don’t think they really want him in that fourth starter role, though for one year they could probably get by.  However, if they don’t resign Holliday, spending money on a quality starter seems to be on the agenda, and if the plan is still to have a rookie/young pitcher in the fifth slot, there’s no room for Pineiro.

DeRosa, I think they’d like to have back, though if he goes elsewhere that’s OK as well.  They probably don’t think he’ll break the bank in arbitration even if they have to go that way with him, which is unlikely.

All players have until Monday to accept the offer or decline it.  I think all three of these guys will turn it down, expecting bigger paydays on the open market, but depending on how that market shapes up, it’s possible someone like Pineiro would want to lock down the safety of an assured deal.

Now the focus moves on to the winter meetings, which will be held next week in Indianapolis.  The consensus seems to be that the team needs to get a good read on the Holliday situation.  If it’s reasonable he’ll come back, great.  If it doesn’t look like it, cut bait and move on.  No one wants to see the Cardinals pin their whole offseason on his signing, because the odds are still not in favor of his return.

It’ll probably be pretty dead between now and next week.  Liven it up by listening to the UCB Radio Hour this evening!  Give Dustin and Travis a call and talk some Cardinal baseball!