Cardinals blowing it with Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright could be huge for Yankees
The Yankees could stand to benefit from the Cardinals’ mistakes.
If you’re worried about what the New York Yankees are going to do this offseason, take some solace in the reports that are indicating the St. Louis Cardinals are seemingly blowing it with some of their longest-tenured players.
Though the Yankees are taking their time, most notably with DJ LeMahieu and a potential reunion with Masahiro Tanaka, at least they’re not disrespecting these guys with lowball offers or not speaking with them at all.
That seems to be the case with the Cardinals, however, who are reportedly not off to a good start this offseason with Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, both of whom have only played baseball in St. Louis. And that could be a huge advantage for the Yankees.
Here’s what Cardinals insider Mark Saxon of The Athletic is reporting:
"“A recent conversation between the Cardinals and the representative for Yadier Molina about a contract extension didn’t get far, according to a source, with Molina’s side balking at an offer they deemed ‘ridiculous.’“Wainwright, for one, said his agent has yet to receive a formal offer from any team. This is baseball’s winter meetings week, but the in-person meetings in Dallas were canceled due to the pandemic, leaving executives and agents to converse via Zoom, texts and calls.”"
We’ve lobbied for the Yankees to sign the Wainwright-Molina package, which would greatly help their situations at catcher and in the starting rotation. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like it would break the bank since both of these guys have 1-2 years left (tops), but we’d like to know how “ridiculous” the offer to Molina was before we start making assumptions about cost.
Who knows, maybe these guys wouldn’t mind sticking it to the Cards by taking a discount with the Yankees since that’ll give them the best chance possible to capture one final championship. At the very least, these talks not getting off to a good start helps the Yankees gain an advantage, especially with Molina, because they’ve already expressed interest in the veteran catcher.
Molina splitting time with Gary Sanchez? Wainwright helping fortify the starting rotation behind Gerrit Cole? Don’t get us too excited.