St Louis Cardinals

Brandon Crawford has spent his entire career with the San Fransico Giants, but this season the veteran shortstop will join the St. Louis Cardinals.

The move to leave San Fransico wasn't his first choice. He spent 13 seasons with the Giants and wanted to remain with them in 2024, but the front office had other plans, he told The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly.

"The bottom line is I was not wanted back by the one person whose (opinion) matters," said Crawford, referring to Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. "So I went with a team that gave me a major-league contract. The Cardinals have a long history and tradition. I've admired and respected the way the Cardinals have played throughout my career and the way the organization has been run.

"But the bottom line is I wanted to come back to the Giants. That was obviously the ideal situation for me."

According to Baggarly, Crawford met with Zaidi in November and expressed his interest in remaining with the team. He told Zaidi he was even willing to take on a different role on the field while mentoring rookie shortstop Marco Luciano.

Ultimately, Crawford's time in San Francisco came to an end when he signed with the Cardinals on a one-year, $2 million deal.

After Crawford received his offer from the Cardinals, he and his agent, Joel Wolfe, gave the Giants a final chance to keep him around. Zaidi's offer to Crawford ultimately closed the door on his return.

"I was told I could earn the last spot on the roster like anyone else could as a non-roster invitee," Crawford said. "That was the nail in the coffin."

While Crawford has been one of the Giants' top infielders for most of his career, winning three Golden Gloves—his latest in 2021—and helping them win two World Series, his numbers have dipped over the last two seasons. Last year, he had one of the worst statistical years of his career, hitting .194 with 55 hits, seven home runs and 38 RBI.

Now, Crawford will look to round out his career with the Cardinals in an unfamiliar role. St. Lous general manager John Mozeliak said that second-year player Masyn Winn will remain the Cardinals' starting shortstop this season, with Crawford around to offer some veteran guidance.

Veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford agreed to a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, according to The Athletic's Katie Woo.

That news comes after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold reported there was "mutual interest" between the two sides.

According to Goold, the Cardinals were looking for a backup to rookie Masyn Winn, who made his debut late last season.

Crawford is coming off a two-year, $32 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, whom he has spent his entire career with. Last season, the 37-year-old hit a career-low .194, collecting 55 hits and seven homers in 92 games.

While Crawford's hitting has dipped in the past two seasons, the four-time Gold Glove Award winner could still be a valuable defensive presence for the Cardinals or a solid veteran mentor to some of the team's younger players.

The shortstop spent 13 seasons with the Giants, aiding them in winning the World Series in 2012 and 2014.

Perhaps Crawford would have liked to close out his career with his hometown team, but now he could have the chance to make an impact in St. Louis.

The Minnesota Twins were American League Central champions this past season, but they are losing a major driving force behind that success.

The St. Louis Cardinals and starting pitcher Sonny Gray "are expected to finalize a deal today," according to the New York Post's Jon Heyman. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal later reported Gray and the Cardinals are finalizing a three-year, $75 million contract.

This comes after the Twins extended him a one-year, $20.325 million qualifying offer in November, although he was widely expected to decline it even at the time.

Gray came to Minnesota as part of a trade with the Cincinnati Reds ahead of the 2022 campaign, and the AL Central team exercised a club option for 2023 for $12.7 million in base salary.

While he was among the best pitchers in the league last season, there was some question about whether it would be his final one.

"Wouldn't shock me if I didn't play any more after this year," Gray said in July, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com. "Wouldn't shock me. Do I want to? Do I think I can? Absolutely. And I can at a very, very high level. It's not about the money. It's whether you still enjoy it, and does your family still enjoy it."

Gray also explained at the time that being a father will weigh into his decision.

"Does it still work with your family? Do your boys still enjoy it? Do they still want you to do it? Do they want dad to be home?" he said. "You think about it every now and then, just being real. But they love it, they enjoy it, they think it's cool. It gives them a little bit of street cred at school. So we'll see how it plays out."

He ultimately decided to return for the 2024 season and will pitch for the TEAM at 34 years old.

This is another team for the veteran who has been in the league since 2013 with stops with the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Red and Twins. While there are some disappointing years in that span, the fact he is a three-time All-Star spread out in 2015, 2019 and 2023 for three different teams is a testament to his durability and longevity.

Gray was excellent in 2023 with a 2.79 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 183 strikeouts in 184 innings. It was the second time in five years he finished with an ERA below 3.00 and marked another excellent performance for the Twins after he finished the 2022 season with a 3.08 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 117 strikeouts in 119.2 innings.

He helped lead Minnesota to a division crown and playoff appearance this past season as part of an impressive one-two punch with Pablo López and then threw five shutout innings during a Wild Card Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately for the Twins, their postseason run came to an end against the Houston Astros in the Division Series. Gray struggled in his only appearance and allowed four earned runs, two home runs and eight hits in four innings.

Yet it didn't overshadow his excellent performance throughout the regular season, and he will now look to take the next step and compete for a championship with the Cardinals.

St. Louis is attempting to bounce back from a last-place finish in the National League Central, which ended its run of four straight playoff appearances. Pitching was a major problem for the team that finished 24th in the league in ERA (4.79) and clearly was a priority heading into the offseason.

Enter Gray, who will be tasked with helping lead a turnaround for the staff.

Rays ace Tyler Glasnow is likely on his way out of Tampa.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported the righty is likely to be traded this offseason.

Lots of trade chatter about Tyler Glasnow this offseason. Two execs told me they believe Tampa Bay will “definitely” move its ace, who is set to earn $25 million in 2024.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) November 21, 2023

It is not particularly surprising given Tampa's history of dealing players once they become remotely known and eclipse the $20 million threshold, nor will it shock anyone that teams in need of starting pitching will be interested in acquiring Glasnow.

One such team, the St. Louis Cardinals, have made it abundantly clear that they are focusing on pitching this offseason.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak said in July that their primary focus would be, "Pitching. Pitching. Pitching," wrote Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in October. It was in that same piece that Goold reported the Cardinals would reach out to the Rays if Glasnow became available amid his ballooning contract.

On the heels of signing former Oriole Kyle Gibson to a one-year, $12 million deal and bringing back Lance Lynn on a $10 million contract, Mozeliak told The Athletic's Katie Woo that the team intends to explore the trade market.

"We have not explored the trade market much to date. We'll probably take a deeper dive into that as we start to approach Winter Meetings. But we don't think we're finished at this point."

Nor should they be.

The Cardinals' pitching, both starting and its rotation, was abysmal in 2023.

St. Louis ranked seventh-worst in team ERA at 4.79 and fourth-worst in team WHIP at 1.46. That position almost single-handedly kept them out of playoff contention and resulted in the worst season Cards fans have experienced since 1999 and first 90-loss season since 1990.

Glasnow started 21 games for the Rays and went 10-7 with an ERA of 3.53, a WHIP of 1.08, and a WAR of 2.0. It was not his best season with the franchise, but he was still an ace and one of the best pitchers in the American League.

He would enhance the Cardinals rotation and instantly be the best of the bunch. He would resume his status as an ace and, with Gibson and Lynn, provide the team a solid one-two-three that it simply did not have a season ago.

St. Louis have prospects to deal in return, too.

Pedro Pagés is a talented young catcher but the Cardinals have a logjam at the position and second baseman Nick Dunn finally looked the part of a potential major leaguer in 2023 after kicking around the minor league system for years.

There are others, including some talented righties, so the Rays would not simply be giving Glasnow away to the first team that is willing to take him off their hands.

The Cardinals have the offensive pieces to make a legitimate postseason run. Paul Goldschmidt is still Paul Goldschmidt despite a dropoff in numbers in 2023, Nolan Arenado was an All-Star in 2023, Lars Nootbaar hit 14 homers with a 3.3 WAR, and Jordan Walker showed tremendous upside, even if he has some work to do defensively.

If the team can put together a rotation, and back it up with some quality bullpen additions, St. Louis will absolutely compete for the NL Central title.

Adding a reliable, quality ace like Glasnow makes it that much easier to do so.

Coming into the offseason desperately needing to add depth in their starting rotation, the St. Louis Cardinals have reached agreement with veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson.

USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported the two sides agreed to a deal. ESPN's Jesse Rogers added Gibson will make $12 million with a team option for 2025.

The deal is similar to the one St. Louis handed out to Lance Lynn on Monday, which ESPN's Jeff Passan reported will be worth around $10 million guaranteed and includes a team option for 2025.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters at the general managers' meetings earlier this month the team needed to add "at least two starters" this offseason.

It would seem unlikely that Gibson and Lynn will be the two big splashes that Cardinals fans are hoping for.

Mozeliak said at the time he would be willing to take a patient approach and potentially explore the trade market.

"I think for us, our checklist is starter, starter, and then let's see what we look like," Mozeliak said. "We do have some position-player talent and depth there. So, we also do want to explore the trade market just in case we aren't successful on the [free-agent market]."

The Cardinals need impact starters, of course, but they also need depth. They are trying to fill 413 innings that were lost from Adam Wainwright's retirement, Dakota Hudson hitting free agency and trading away Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty during the season.

St. Louis had the fifth-worst ERA (5.08) and second-fewest strikeouts per nine innings (6.92) from its starting rotation (5.08) in 2023.

Aaron Nola is the only top-tier free-agent starting pitcher who is off the market after returning to the Philadelphia Phillies on a seven-year, $172 million deal. The Cardinals were among the teams interested in the 30-year-old before he opted to stay with Philadelphia.

Gibson and Lynn should fill the back-of-the-rotation, innings-eater role in St. Louis. Gibson spent last season with the Baltimore Orioles. He tied for the AL lead with 33 starts and was sixth with 192 innings pitched.

While that volume will be valuable for the Cardinals, they need Gibson to improve on the 4.73 ERA and AL-high 198 hits allowed in 2023. He was named to the AL All-Star team with the Texas Rangers in 2021 before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies midway through the season.

The Cardinals finished last in the NL Central with a 71-91 record in 2023. It was the franchise's first losing season since 2007 and its first time finishing last in the division since 1990.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers declined his contract option at the start of the offseason, Lance Lynn has reportedly landed on his feet with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Per ESPN's Jeff Passan, Lynn has agreed to a one-year, $10 million million contract with the Cardinals.

With this deal, Lynn returns to where his professional career began.

A first-round pick of the Cardinals in 2008, Lynn debuted for St. Louis in 2011 and remained with the club through 2017. He went 72-47 with a 3.38 ERA in 193 appearances for the team, winning a World Series title in 2011 and earning an All-Star nod in 2012.

Lynn split the 2023 season between the Chicago White Sox and Dodgers. He started the year in Chicago and was on pace to have the worst season of his career with a 6.47 ERA in 21 starts before being traded to Los Angeles on July 28.

The Dodgers got a slightly better performance from Lynn down the stretch. He had a 4.36 ERA in 11 starts after the deal, but home-run issues persisted in both places. The right-hander led all pitchers in total homers allowed (44) and homers per nine innings (2.16).

In his lone start of the postseason for the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLDS, Lynn allowed four solo homers in the bottom of the third inning in a 4-2 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks became the first team in MLB playoff history with four home runs in an inning. Lynn is one of 13 pitchers in history to allow at least four homers in a postseason game.

Lynn would have been owed $18 million in 2024, but instead received a $1 million buyout when the Dodgers declined his option on Nov. 5.

While Lynn isn't hitting the free-agent market at a great time for himself, there are reasons to be optimistic that 2023 was merely a speed bump.

From 2019 to '22, Lynn had a 3.42 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 635 strikeouts in 571 innings over 95 starts. He was seventh among all pitchers with 14.4 FanGraphs wins above replacement during that span.

If that's the hopeful view, the pessimistic outlook will point to Lynn being 36 years old and a fastball-heavy pitcher whose heater has lost more than two miles per hour from 2019 (94.6) to 2023 (92.4).

Even if Lynn doesn't return to his pre-2023 form, he does have value as a starter who will take the ball every fifth day. The two-time All-Star has thrown at least 150 innings in five of the past seven seasons, excluding the 60-game 2020 season and 2022 when a knee injury kept him out for two months.

The Cardinals are almost certainly betting on Lynn simply as a back-of-the-rotation starter or long reliever out of the bullpen, with the hope there may be a little more left in the tank coming off a rough 2023.

Veteran starting pitcher Aaron Nola is entering free agency for the first time, and he's reportedly drawing interest from a pair of National League teams hoping to pry him away from the Philadelphia Phillies.

According to MLB Network's Jon Morosi, the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals are "among teams showing early interest" in Nola this offseason.

The Phillies made Nola a qualifying offer worth $20.3 million for the 2024 season, and he has until 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday to decide whether he will accept it. The expectation is that he will reject it in hopes of securing a multiyear deal, and Philadelphia will receive a compensatory draft pick if he chooses to sign with another team.

"We love him," Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said recently. "He's been tremendous for the franchise. He's pitched very well for a number of years. He's a Phillie. We hope to retain him, but if we don't to me that would be our No. 1 area – we would need to replace him. We need to be in position where we have somebody else that will be a starting pitcher of quality in the rotation. So, yes, it's either Aaron or somebody else."

While Atlanta has been Nola's biggest rival for his nine major league seasons in Philadelphia, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic noted on Monday that he is "perhaps the most intriguing fit" for the Braves this offseason. The 30-year-old is "close" with Braves pitching coach Rich Kranitz, who served as bullpen coach with the Phillies in 2016 and 2017 before being elevated to pitching coach in 2018.

Nola is coming off a down year this past season, finishing with a 12-9 record, a 4.46 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP and 202 strikeouts in 193.2 innings of work. Still, he is capable of being a reliable starter in the right situation and likely will be one of the most coveted pitchers on the market this winter.