Cardinals, Mozeliak leave Las Vegas without a souvenir
LAS VEGAS — St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak rolled his luggage out of the Bellagio and left the Baseball Winter Meetings without a deal in place for lefty Brian Fuentes but a lot of ground covered for movement later, he said. With the blinking lights and chirpy tones of the slot machines around him, Mozeliak met briefly with the St. Louis on his way to checkout. He acknowledged ongoing discussions with Fuentes’ representatives.
“It’s more than just exploration at this point,” Mozeliak said. He added nothing was imminent.
He leaves the annual meetings with a far different view of the market than he had entering this week in Las Vegas. At the start, Mozeliak and the Cardinals said Fuentes and other closers were likely going to be out of reach with their budget. A few days later they are neck deep into negotiating with the lefty and, in some corners, viewed as the current favorite to land him. Any deal would probably be less in value than the reported three-year, $30-million that has been kicked around.
At least two lingering conversations for the Cardinals gained clarity. Arthur Rhodes, who had wanted to pitch for the Cardinals, had that “door close”, a source familiar with the talks said. The veteran lefty has a deal in place with Cincinnati. Felipe Lopez wants to find a starting job and the match isn’t there right now with the Cardinals. Mozeliak insisted that that door was open to further discussions down the line if the market doesn’t spit out the job offer Lopez wants. That would appear unlikely as Arizona has shown sustained interest in signing Lopez to replace free-agent Orlando Hudson.
Mozeliak remains buttoned-lipped about the Cardinals wheeling or dealing.
Some morning-after tidbits became clear Thursday. The Cardinals did have tandem interest in the 12-player deal that Cleveland, Seattle and the New York Mets pulled off late Wednesday night. It’s not clear if the Cardinals were every involved in a three-way with any of those teams, though they did make separate plays for closer J.J. Putz and reliever Aaron Heilman, two main pieces in the deal.
Mozeliak echoed the sentiment that groundwork was laid, conversations started and a much keener sense of the market was accomplished at the meetings.
“It’s a little bit easier to to predict,” Mozeliak said as he walked away. “Then again there are lots of things swirling where it could be more explosive than anticipated.”
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(14 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5)
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Wouldn’t waste my time with Fuentes. Address these needs:
Protection for Pujols
Legit lead off hitter that can steal basis and be a distraction.
Bring up minor league closers
Overall, not impressed with the aggression towards Fuentes. If you watch his mechanics, he is due for an arm injury.
Why doesn’t he go after Randy Johnson? Or Trevor Hoffman? Both are readily available. Both would fill needs. Both would be cheap and accept 1 or 2 year contracts. And both pitched very well last year. Easily justifying their cost.
I don’t want Fuentes. He is a solid closer sure. But he is going to cost us almost as much as Rodriguez cost the Mets. Plus our first round pick. And K-Rod was a much safer bet.
Say what you want about the Mets. But they got what they wanted. And then some. I wish we could see that kind of performance from our GM.
“I wish we could see that kind of performance from our GM.”. Are you kidding me! Umm…since when does Saint Louis has New York dollars to spend? Mozeliak is dealing with a pretty limited payroll. Yeah I’d like to see the Cards get some great talent, but at what cost? I don’t want to see a year or two of maybe a BIG maybe great baseball just to sacrifice the future of this team. In this type of ridiculous throw dollars at players enivorment that teams like the Mets and Yankess are trying to create you need to look within and cultivate talent. Mo is waiting for the dust to clear a little so he can bring in some decent guys who we won’t be over paying for. Don’t forget Loshe. He learned under Jocketty who stretched the Lou dollar for many years. I bet we’ll end up with a couple of surpise pieces to this team, as fans we just need to be patient.
Brian and David are both right - the Mets did get what they wanted, and no, we don’t have a New York payroll.
I’m not surprised that the Cards didn’t get into a bidding war for K-Rod, but I am curious at the Putz deal. Looking at what Seattle got in return, I don’t think Heilman and Chavez are much different than say, Thompson and Schumaker. I feel like Mo could have pulled this one off without the Indians being involved.
Putz is relatively young (not in age, but in contract status). He also has expressed the desire to close rather than be a setup man.
Same ’stuff’, different year.
Tiresome.
Lopez signed with Arizona like this morning. Great reporting.
AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT’S NOT SURPRISED THE DIDN’T SPEND A DIME?
MOZALIEK AND THE CARDS ORG. DIDN’T SPEND A DIME,AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT’S NOT SURPRISED?
Brian Fuentes is about to want more money than he is worth with the Angels @ Brewers now after him. There is still some good free agent low hanging fruit pitching out there we can get Randy Johnson,Mark Hendrickson,Oliver Perez Trevor Hoffman @ some IMPACT BATS Adam Dunn,Bob Abreu,and a good player in Jerry Hairston JR. B.J.Ryan is still on the trade market as a lefthanded closer. Sign Adam Dunn 3-4 years 8 million,Randy Johnson 1-2 years 6 million or Mark Hendrickson 2 years 1 million @ TRADE for B.J.Ryan BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE GETS HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think Fuentes is exactly what this team needs, plus another starter. For those saying we need a clean up hitter or lead off man just look at last year. What was our biggest flaw last year? It wasn’t the offense last year, or really even the starters, it was the terrible bullpen last year. STL lead the league in blown saves (30+) last year and it seemed that every time a reliever came in with runners on, they always scored. If they had actually won half of the games that they had blown last year, they probably could have won the division. I don’t believe that Perez (2 years removed from college ball) is ready to be a ML closer and Motte needs to develop another pitch before he is ready. I was so fed up last year with watching them go to the 9th inning with a lead only to watch it slip away. Last year Fuentes was 30/34 in save opportunities. We had and still have no one who can even come close to that. As for Randy Johnson, he is not coming here. He has said he wants to stay on the West Coast and with a team that has ST in Arizona. That eliminates us unless we plan to really overpay for an over the hill starter just to entice him to come here. I say sign Fuentes, then trade Ankiel to Tampa Bay for Sonnestine, put Rasmus in CF.