Buzz: Cardinals Second-Guessing $ for Holliday
According to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals may decide to pass on re-signing OF Matt Holliday, and instead use that many for multiple players and to help in eventually signing 1B Albert Pujols to a contract extension.
“You can’t just look at it in the vacuum of 2010,” Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told Strauss. “It has to be in a broad sense. Whatever contract Holliday ends up signing, it’s going to be a long-term deal. From where we sit, we have to understand with Albert coming up, such a deal’s ramifications for long-term planning.”
According to Mozeliak, he has yet to submit a formal contract offer to Holliday’s agent, Scott Boras.
…yesterday, here, i wrote about how Roy Halladay has the ability to make his situation this off season very similar to how things played out for Johan Santana in 2006… to me, the situation for holliday this winter is also very similar to how the market took shape for Carlos Beltran, following 2004…
Beltran and his agent, Scott Boras, negotiated a seven-year, $119 million deal with the Mets, but it paid him just $10 million in year one, $12 million in 2006 and 2007, and then jumped to $18.5 million for each of the final four seasons.
…there are people in baseball who believe boras will be able to get a seven-year deal for holliday, while others feel he is more likely to sign with whomever first guarantees a sixth season and a contract worth more than $100 million…
…so, if this is the case, i wonder if holliday would be willing accept a deal like beltran, paying him just $10 million next season, say, $15 million in 2011, then $20 million each of the final four years, i.e., a six-year, $105 million deal…
…this would allow the Mets to sign holliday, plus a pitcher like Randy Wolf, while building up the bench and bullpen, all for the roughly $25 million people estimate they will spend for next year…
