Mozeliak: Cardinals not courting free-agent A.J. Burnett
LAS VEGAS — While pitching remains his main target as the Baseball Winter Meetings opened today at the Bellagio, St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak shot down the idea that he was going big-game hunting, and that included any pursuit of A.J. Burnett, reported or otherwise.
“I don’t know where that started,” Mozeliak said. “We never engaged in him.”
Mozeliak met with a small group of local media this evening at the Cardinals’ suite at the Bellagio, giving us a rundown of his first day of business at the annual swapmeet and trade show. Mozeliak said he met with a “handful of agents” and a “handful of teams” and was “equally active” with both. He described the first day as a continuation of the past weeks, distilled into a few hours of talks that could lead in the coming days to deals.
He covets pitching. But with specific parameters.
The chief reason the Cardinals have not “engaged” in the derby for Burnett, as was reported in this morning’s Post-Dispatch, is the length of the contract such a pitcher would command. The Cardinals had a similar reservation when exploring a deal with San Diego for ace Jake Peavy. The Cardinals have three pitchers signed to long-term deals — Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Kyle Lohse. Mozeliak said the way the team is currently built prohibits him from adding another long-term deal to the rotation without painting the payroll into a difficult corner in the third and fourth year of that contract.
“Adding a fourth,” he said, “I don’t think that makes sense.”
The Cardinals would prefer to get a starter on a short-term, possibly two-year deal.
Mozeliak did not rule out the possibility of moving one of his outfielders because it where “we have depth.” He also said the Cardinals have virtually exhausted all avenues for dealing Adam Kennedy and that the presence of Kennedy on the roster may make it difficult to resign Felipe Lopez.
Mozeliak said the pitcher he’s after could be a starter or, if the opportunity is there, a closer.
“A lot of this is timing,” Mozeliak said of how his rotation is structured with three pitchers signed through 2011, and potentially (with options) beyond. “It’s hard to engage in us landing that type of pitcher (top-end starter). That’s not the most popular thing to hear. The way we put our club together we’re not going to be able to have four starting pitchers with long-term contracts.”
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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. 
Derrick - thanks keeping us up to date. Can you give us a gauge of other teams’ interest in Cardinal major & minor league players, such as who’s being being targeted and by whom?
I can see how a starter for two years could be picked up via trade, but which free agent starters are likely to accept only two years? I would target the rays for a trade of our outfielders for a young starter. i would sign free agent relievers and a closer as the closer market looks to be getting cheaper by the day.
There is no way I could give Burnett a 5 yr. contract. I think my concerns with Burnett are similar to most concerns regarding Burnett: Given his past injury history, he is just to big of a risk.
Only three times in his nine year career has Burnett thrown 200 innings. You can’t question how good his stuff is, however. When he is on top of his game, he has some of the best stuff in the bigs. Just to big of an injury risk, and I have to agree with MO here. There are too many other holes to address, and paying another starting pitcher doesn’t make sense.
Another interesting point is that when it comes time to try and re-sign Albert Pujols, Burnetts contract could change things when the Cards try to re-sign El Hombre. Signing him just doesn’t make sense for a lot of different reasons.
It sounds to me like Mr Mozeliak is assuming he’ll get 200 innings per year from Carp from now on huh? Silly me I thought they would assume like I did that Carp really wouldn’t be the guy they had hoped for when they gave him his current deal. Maybe I’m just worriing too much about the fact he’s only thrown 21.1 innings the last 2 years but it seems foolish to count Carpenter as a reliable part of your rotation now or going forward. My point being they dont really have 3 pitchers signed to long term deals. They have 2 pitchers and Chris Carpenter. A third Quality Pitcher would be nice in my book.
Matt - from what I read I don’t think Mo is making it sound like he is going to get 200 innings from Carp. I think he is simply stating that he already has three SPs locked up to long term deals. Which he does. He’s not saying that they are all going to be productive and pitch 200 innings. He’s not saying they will all win 12-15 games next year. He’s simply saying that he has three starting pitchers locked up to long term deals already, and it wouldn’t be wise for the team to lock up a 4th. Especially (like someone already mentioned) with the re-signing of Pujols. And, to be honest with you, I don’t think the Cardinals main priority should be to land a #1 guy in the rotation. I think we already have that in Wainwright. I think we need bullpen help more than anything else and a backend rotation type of SP (maybe a #3 or #4 guy in the rotation) that will give the team a chance to win and eat some innings.
I am a die hard Cardinal fan. Check stats all year long, read Post dispatch every day but…..i am tired of the Cardinals penny pinching!!
A hot dog is $5.00, soda $5.00, water $3.00, pretzel $4.00!!!!!! DeWitt and friends are making millions and the product is increasing in value every year.
You don’t buy a sports franchise to produce millions yearly for your already filthy rich family. It is an assett that increases in value each year. What did they pay to buy The Cards and what is it worth now?
Cut the fans a break. Lower the prices at stadium or take ‘OUR’ hard earned money and field a winner and QUIT COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR PAYROLL.
I am a die hard Cardinal fan. Check stats all year long, read Post dispatch every day but…..i am tired of the Cardinals penny pinching!!
A hot dog is $5.00, soda $5.00, water $3.00, pretzel $4.00!!!!!! DeWitt and friends are making millions and the product is increasing in value every year.
You don’t buy a sports franchise to produce millions yearly for your already filthy rich family. It is an assett that increases in value each year. What did they pay to buy The Cards and what is it worth now?
Cut the fans a break. Lower the prices at stadium or take ’OUR’ hard earned money and field a winner and QUIT COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR PAYROLL.
I would NOT give A.J.Burnett 5 years eather. I WOULD take on Peavys contract. GREAT PITCHING wins SEE BRAVES of 90s !!!! WHY is MO talking about getting Peavy would be PAINTING the PAYROLL into a DIFFICULT CORNER 3-4 years of that contract. Does MO not know we lose Kennedy 4 milloin,K.GREENE 6.5 milloin,Glaus 11 million,Ankiel 9 million,Franklin ??million NEXT year. 2010 starting line up infield Molina,Pujols,Miles,TYLER GREENE,David Freese,Ludwick,Rasmus,Barton/Mathers. We NEED PITCHING!!!!!!!! To win with that.
I’m sick and tired of the whining like in the post from Charles Ellis. Get real people. The payroll is what it is and the team has to operate a certain way. To say “spend more” is just foolish whining. Please stop