Three cheers for John Mozeliak

Details of the Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus deal are starting to emerge. According to the Toronto press, about $1.8 million dollars will be included in the swap... going from the Blue Jays' bank accounts into the Cardinals.

Regardless of what happens on the field over the next two years, Mozeliak has worked his first masterpiece. He took a player in the middle of a public feud with his manager whom everyone knows had demanded a trade mixed with the baggage of an awful 2007 season punctuated by major shoulder surgery and traded him for a bona fide slugger while getting the other team to kick in some cash, too? Unbelievable.

So much for those who said the Cardinals needed to tear down and rebuild, in part because Rolen would have to be given away for nothing... and that the team would probably have to eat a major chunk of his salary just to get rid of him.

The Cardinals couldn't afford to pay Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter, Juan Encarnacion AND Rolen while they gave no value to the team. So it was HUGE to get value in return for Rolen or else live with the toxic situation in the clubhouse and keep him.

While this deal is incredible because of the circumstances, supposedly, it wasn't the only thing Mozeliak had working.

- The Cleveland Press said the Indians recently talked to the Cardinals about a swap of shortstop Jhonny Peralta and pitcher Cliff Lee in a trade that would have included Rolen. The Tribe was said also to be interested in Anthony Reyes as part of that deal. According to Tony La Russa last night on Sports Plus, at this point Reyes is expected to compete for a spot in the 2008 rotation. I still wish the team could trade him as part of a deal for a leadoff man/better middle infielder or a veteran starting pitcher.

- The Angles were reported by the OC media to be willing to part with Chone Figgins for an impact third baseman, but supposedly wanted to see what Rolen looked like in spring training.

- Earlier he had a deal working with Milwaukee swapping Rolen for starting pitcher Chris Capuano. The Cardinals said they backed out of the deal because they didn't want to trade Rolen within the division. But word came out later that the Cardinals also wanted Bill Hall. It was a lot to ask and it didn't work out, but kudos for Mozeliak for sticking to his guns and getting good equity when many of the so-called experts said the Cardinals would get nothing of value in return and would have to eat half of Rolen's salary just to get him to leave town.

All in all, in looks like Mozeliak did a great job of driving up Rolen's value.

The Cardinals are still a deeply flawed team with extremely shaky starting pitching, no leadoff man and weakened defense. But they seem to have greatly improved the core of their offense with Glaus behind and a healthy Chris Duncan back in the mix. With a couple of tweeks, there is still hope this team can be reasonably competitive in a weak division

Comments

[corey]

So if you had the control what pitcher would you trade for and who would you be willing to part with? I agree with the great work that Mo did to get this done.

[corey]

So if you had the control what pitcher would you trade for and who would you be willing to part with? I agree with the great work that Mo did to get this done.

[View from the Cheap Seats]

The easiest answer might come on the free agent market, which has completely stagnated.

Jon Leiber is a guy the Cardinals might be able to get on a one-year deal at this point. And Josh Fogg is still out there...

It would be great to have at least one more guy who wasn't a big question mark. Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper appear to be relatively solid. But Joel Pineiro only pitched half a season last year after being banished to the bullpen by the Red Sox. Matt Clement hasn't thrown a pitch in a year and a half and Mark Mulder's health is completely unknown...

On the trade front, I still think Matt Morris is a great option. I know he isn't an ace anymore. But he's going to give you 200 innings of everything he has. And the beauty is that he only has one guaranteed year on his current contract. So, if Clement, Mulder and Chris Carpenter are all at 100 percent in 2009, you can easily cut ties with Matty Mo.

With the Pirates desperate to save some money, Morris would cost little in terms of players. And the Bucs might pick up a portion of his salary. Morris for $6 million in 2008 doesn't sound bad. It's better than $4 million for Kip Wells.

[Antoine]

What an impressive deal if it all works out as reported.

Now, I kind of want to know what the roster will look like on opening day (barring further moves, of course). Here is what we do know:

SP
Wainwright
Looper
Clement
Piniero

RP
Isringhausen
Franklin
Springer
Ra. Flores
Johnson

That's nine pitchers, leaving three more spots.

Other likely candidates
Wellemeyer
Thompson

Question marks
Reyes
Ro. Flores
Brazleton
Wasdin

DL
Carpenter
Mulder
Kinney

RP -- Minors
K. Jimenez
Worrell
Perez
Motte
McClellan

SP -- Minors
Hawksworth
Parisi
Boggs

That gives them quite a few options, but of course the starting pitching leaves something to be desired at this point.

Now we go to position players who have assured spots:

C
Molina
LaRue

IF
Pujols
Kennedy
Izturis
Glaus (or Rolen if the deal falls through)

OF
Ankiel
Duncan

Which leaves five open roster spots for position players.

OF
Barton
Ludwick
Schumaker

C/IF
Phelps
Spiezio
Miles
D. Jimenez
Ryan

OF -- Minors
Rasmus
Haerther
Mather

C/IF -- Minors
Johnson
Barden
Hoffpauir

So, the questions:

1) Do I have it right that those nine pitchers and those eight position players are locks to make the roster?

2) Have I forgotten anyone who might compete for a roster spot?

3) Who will get the final eight spots? I'm assuming three pitchers and five position players.

I have a feeling Phelps might be a guy to get on the roster to have that third-catcher flexibility, but that really tightens the rest of the infield and outfield. The Cards likely will need to carry three more outfielders (of course, they COULD go with Spiezio out there again). And it's unlikely that they will let Barton slip away. So if you assume those three make it, you have two spots left.

That sets up a battle between Rasmus, Schumaker and Ludwick for one spot and Miles, Jimenez and Ryan for the other (and Miles has an MLB contract).

As for the pitching, I would hope Thompson and Wellemeyer wouldn't both be on the roster, but if they are it leaves only one spot for Reyes and a host of others to fight it out.

[WD]

Where did you hear money from Tor to STL? I heard other way around as STL ate some of Rolen's contract. Also, a magical trade? Are you kidding me? Glaus is rubbish. The guy struggles to hit .260, and has terrible defense. Sure, he may hit 30 dingers (if that ankle can miraculously heal), but the strike outs and errors, coupled with a lack of range will give fans headaches.

[WD]

Where did you hear money from Tor to STL? I heard other way around as STL ate some of Rolen's contract. Also, a magical trade? Are you kidding me? Glaus is rubbish. The guy struggles to hit .260, and has terrible defense. Sure, he may hit 30 dingers (if that ankle can miraculously heal), but the strike outs and errors, coupled with a lack of range will give fans headaches.

[Eschman]

I think your right -- we got equivelant value for Rolen with the Glaus trade. Then again, we all know what Rolen is worth.

All things considered, I'd still rather have Rolen. Healthy, he has much more upside and Glaus, who isn't as efficient offensively and may be a defensive liability.

I guess it had to be done though. Rolen, I heard, was prepared to sit out all of spring training. His relationship with LaRussa really spun out of control.

[Eschman]

I think your right -- we got equivelant value for Rolen with the Glaus trade. Then again, we all know what Rolen is worth.

All things considered, I'd still rather have Rolen. Healthy, he has much more upside and Glaus, who isn't as efficient offensively and may be a defensive liability.

I guess it had to be done though. Rolen, I heard, was prepared to sit out all of spring training. His relationship with LaRussa really spun out of control.

[View From the Cheap Seats]

WD,

Don't compare Glaus to the Rolen of 2004. Unfortunately, Rolen's not that guy anymore. And it doesn't look promising that he will be again.

But, more importantly, La Russa and Rolen could no longer co-exist. So if he does return to form, it wasn't going to be here. Mozeliak was up against the wall because of La Russa and Rolen's very public hatred for each other. So, under the circumstances, it's hard to imagine anything better being worked out.

I can't imagine Glaus will be any more frustrating with runners in scoring position and less than one out than Rolen was last year. The latter struck out 99 times or more seven times in his 12-year career, four of the five years Rolen stayed under the century mark, it was because he played 142 games or less. Usually way less.

And let's not forget about the unbelievable number of pop-ups Rolen hit last season with games on the line. What difference does it makes if the batter whiffs or hits a towering, 50-foot-long fly ball?

Glaus is a free swinger. But he has the reputation of being a clutch hitter. And he should benefit from playing on the slower grass surface at Busch as opposed to the rock hard artificial turf in Toronto.

Would you have preferred that the Cardinals gave Rolen away in a salary dump and got nothing in return?

[Antoine]

There are those who would have traded Rolen for a pitcher or a leadoff man, and that would be tempting, too.

But then you don't have a third baseman or a cleanup hitter. So who knows? It wasn't like they could get a pitcher, a leadoff hitter, a cleanup hitter AND a third baseman for him.

As for Glaus struggling to hit .260, he still averages 36 homers and 101 RBI over 162 games with a .500 slugging average and a .358 on-base percentage. And the numbers might get better back in the NL. In his only NL season, he hit .258 with 37 homers, 97 RBI, a .522 slugging average and a .363 on-base percentage.

[Antoine]

Also, as it says at the top of the post, Scott got those money details from the Toronto media. And it was Glaus' heel, not ankle, that was giving him problems.

[Joe]

to copy what i wrote elsewhere:

i really don't see how anyone cannot like this trade. hell, even the defense part of it, it's not like we're sticking the defensive equivalent of chris duncan at 3rd. glaus can hold his own. he's been there his whole career, if he sucked so bad, he'd have been moved from there long ago. getting rid of one of rolen's 3 years....getting them to somehow fork over any money when they're taking on the larger contract.......getting someone who has proven that he can hit for power, even in limited action........

schwa, why so negative about it? what has glaus ever done to lead you to believe he'd hit .218? if anyone is trending that way, it's rolen, not glaus. and like some have pointed out.....every park in the NL central is a hitters park. and glaus is going from turf to grass, which will be much easier on his foot. and yeah, he's not going to be in the conversation of greatest 3rd sackers ever like rolen is, but he's fine. the difference in D might be a few runs over the course of the year, not enough to go apeshit over.

outside of glaus blocking david freese (lol), i can't see a bad thing about this deal.

[View from the Cheap Seats]

Joe,

I completely agree. It's not like the Cardinals traded vintage Rolen for a guy who is helpless with the glove. Glaus was a very sought after player when he was last on the free agent market and he is at least solidly average with the glove.
And I still don't think Rolen will ever be healthy for a whole season. He's always going to be at risk of hurting himself bumping into someone on the basepaths or making a diving play. I wish him well. But this is for the best.

[Fred McTaggart]

I've had plantar fasciitis so I know how bad it can be--mainly because it's so painful and it takes at least nine months to heal. It's debilitating because of the pain (rather than weakness or stiffness) and eventually it does get better.

IMO, it's not nearly as serious as Rolen's shoulder. Sure, for every day life, it will get better, but for what Scott wants and needs to do with his shoulder, I really don't think it will ever be the same. Scott's anger at the doctors is an indication of his denial and stubbornness about this. He's had some of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country, and he's angry at some of them because they haven't allowed him to become the player he once was. If he ever comes to accept that this is simply not going to happen, he can make the adjustments that are necessary to get him back on track.

[Eschman]

I don't think going from turf to grass is going to make Glaus a better third baseman. Most will tell you that playing on a grass surface is more difficult than turf because there are no divots in turf. I remember in the 80s a few misguided "experts" were critical of Ozzie's reputation as baseball's best defensive shortstop because he played on a rug, where there are no bad hops.

Look, I'm OK with trade -- only because the rift between Rolen and LaRussa made it necessary. But let's not fool ourselves by thinking this is an upgrade.

[Eschman]

Oh, and one more thing I just need to get off my chest...

As I was mindlessly shaking off the effects of a busy work day, I failed to realize that I had Kevin Slaten's show tuned into my radio (ordinarily, I would scream and turn the dial as soon as I heard his voice).

His take on the trade was that LaRussa made it happen because he plays favorites with players, because he's too arrogant to admit that he was wrong for benching Rolen in the NLCS, and that Pujols somehow conjoiled him into pressing for the trade. Furthmore, he said LaRussa was a coward who was too arrogant to tell the truth about what really happened, as evidenced by the fact that he refused to come on Slaten's show to answer the kind of questions the rest of the St. Louis media is too chicken to ask.

First of all, in response to any notion Slaten has that this fiasco was the manager's fault, I can only refer to the words of the great Scott Wuerz. It was on a recent blog that Scott described the kind of response he'd get from his boss had he ever made the kind of outrageous demands Rolen has made of the Cardinals: "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ... no shut up and get back to work."

And finally, I wonder what gets into Slaten's mind to believe that a sure bet Hall of Fame manager -- one who has five league pennants and two world titles on his resume -- needs to appear on his show to validate his career. Talk about arrogance.

Slaten's a jerk and shame on me for letting my radio dial settle on his time slot.

But I feel much better now. Thanks for the forum, Scott!

[View From the Cheap Seats]

Plantar fasciitis is nothing to sneeze at. But It's something that can be managed. A bum shoulder is going to affect a major league baseball player's swing forever. And Rolen's conditions seems to have shown that surgery is only a temporary solution.
Glaus will miss some games. But Rolen was always a threat to get hurt at any time and be out for the season.

[View From the Cheap Seats]

Eschman:

While Tony La Russa didn't handle things the best, there is no doubt that Rolen was driving this bus. He completely overreacted when he was benched in the 2006 playoffs. And, up until that point, he stunk. The time off and the cortizone shot worked wonders for him. He should've bought Tony a present. But he decided to let his pride get in the way, and it was really all over at that point.

I really don't get the four-page letter of demands La Russa sent Rolen this off-season. What did he expect the reaction to be? But I guess Tony felt that he had to resolve the situation one way or another.

Bottom line is that Rolen demanded to be traded. I have tremendous respect for him as a player. He was great at every part of the game - hitting, baserunning, fielding, sliding, throwing... I think he could have been thought of in the same way as the greatest of the Cardinals greats. But he decided he would rather leave than try to fix the situation. And if he didn't want to be here, this fan didn't want him to be here anymore.

[jrmomo100]

Think we need another starting pitcher a healthy one. and then take our chances with what we have...I would like to see some of the younger players ryan barton phelps and etc be given a chance...

[Eschman]

Oh, I totally agree. LaRussa maked demands -- but he's the boss. For all the organization did for him -- and what wearing a Cardinals' uniform could longer could have done for him -- his reaction to whatever caused this rift was way overboard. The trade had to be made, but the whole thing rubs me the wrong way. It's like any player's strike. How can I possibly understand the point of view of someone being paid millions to play a little boy's game -- and then crying because his boss gives him marching orders?

[Brett R.]

Glaus was the best the Cards could get for Rolen and face it, they had to trade Rolen.

[View From the Cheap Seats]

Any doubts about the need to trade Rolen were erased Monday at the baseball writers dinner when La Russa took yet another public shot at his former third baseman.

GM John Mozeliak said over the weekend that he thinks the moves that have been made so far this offseason have done wonders for the atmosphere of the clubhouse. That would seem to be a pretty thinly-veiled remark that Rolen was a cancer in the locker room. (At least I don't think Mozeliak was talking about Jim Edmonds, So Taguchi or David Eckstein.)