The common strategy employed by the St. Louis Cardinals to wait and see how the trade and free agent markets develop has once again come back to haunt them.
Left-hander Jose Quintana, who emerged as their ace late in the season after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates, has signed a two-year, $26 million contract with the New York Mets.
Needless to say, Cardinals fans are not happy campers this morning, and have taken to Twitter to roast President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak for his failure to retain the veteran left-hander.
Meanwhile Mo looking at the #STLCards rotation like https://t.co/K0fgh476Jv pic.twitter.com/FA4mDbtVaO
— Brian (@bpweygandt) December 7, 2022
Cards Fans Dig Into Mozeliak
At this point, you really can’t blame Cardinals fans for being frustrated.
Mozeliak promised the fanbase that he would increase the team’s payroll for 2023.
So far, the only move he has made is the signing of Guillermo Zuniga, a pitcher who has never pitched at the Major League level.
Quintana was the Cardinals Game 1 starter in the postseason against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Now, St. Louis is in desperate need of a starting pitcher.
Meanwhile, the Phillies have added Trea Turner, Taijuan Walker, and Matt Strahm.
And the #STLCards failed to bring back the guy they had tabbed as their best pitcher going into the Playoffs…. 🤦♂️ https://t.co/jAqFAxKMpB
— Andrew Dettmer 🏹 ⚾️ (@AJDett) December 7, 2022
The Cardinals obviously fell short in the NL Wild Card Series against the Phillies.
That loss ended the careers of Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols, two legends that now need to be replaced.
Cardinals fans can only hope that Mozeliak is focused on trying to improve the team and will keep his promise of raising the payroll.
We’ll see what comes next for the NL Central champions.
