Cardinal Mail Bag: 2021, Stanton, Rolen

I will get questions from time to time via email or Facebook about the Cardinals. I’ve gotten a few recently and thought I’d address them here.

What do you think is the best course of action for the 2021 team? Joe C.

There are plenty of options for the Cardinals this off-season, but I don’t see them making the needed moves. The financial constraints coming out of 2020 make it hard for the team to make a splash. I think the team will limit their moves to their free agents (Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, and Kolten Wong) and add a few supplemental pieces…think last year’s Brad Miller signing. This is the smartest course of action because we’ll see Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler, Carlos Martinez, and Andrew Miller come off the payroll; that clears out over $58M dollars. This would also kill the fanbase; anything less then a World Series Championship seems to be a failure to most fans.

Trade scenario: The Yankees trade Giancarlo Stanton and cash to the Cardinals for Andrew Miller and Matt Carpenter? newyorkred47

It would never happen. While the Cardinals would love to shed the money owed to Miller and Carpenter, they would be better off passing on the deal and waiting a season for Miller and Carp’s money to drop off the books after the season. Stanton is a nice player, but he hasn’t had a fully healthy season since 2018 and his defense is on the decline. The team would be better off dealing for Nolan Arenado or doing a bad contract for bad contract deal.

If Scott Rolen would make it into the Hall of Fame, what hat does he wear? Bob H.

This is tough. Rolen got a rookie of the year award with the Phillies, had 2 gold gloves, and had a bWAR of 29.2. With the Cardinals, he had a bWAR of 25.9, 4 all stars, 2 gold gloves, and 4th place MVP finish. The bWAR wasn’t much different between the 2; he averaged 4.3 per season with the Cardinals, while 4.2 with the Phillies. He also had an all star and gold glove in 2002, the season he went from the Phillies to the Cardinals. The edge might go to the Cardinals just for the fact that Rolen grew up a Cardinal fan. More realistically, he’s probably going to go in with no logo on the hat.

If you have a Cardinals question, send it to in**@ny******.com and we’ll answer it in a future mailbag.