The St. Louis Cardinals made a big move in December to strengthen their offense and replace Yadier Molina, signing veteran catcher Willson Contreras to a five-year, $87.5 million deal.
However, since then, they have been quiet and have seemingly forgotten to fill two notable holes.
While they possess solid internal options, some proven talent could have helped them.
Here are two moves the Cardinals should have made this winter.
1. Re-Signing Jose Quintana
Re-signing Quintana would have been a good start.
Quintana was rumored to be interested in returning to St. Louis.
However, the Cardinals made no effort to sign him and instead let him walk and ultimately sign an affordable two-year deal with the New York Mets.
After the front office talked about increasing payroll, fans were left disappointed.
The Cardinals only have one starter, Steven Matz, under contract for 2024 and there are still question marks in the starting rotation.
Matz and Jack Flaherty are both coming off of injury-plagued seasons, while Adam Wainwright is coming off of an uncharacteristically bad month of September, one that cost him a spot in the postseason rotation.
They had the money to keep Quintana, but waited and ultimately ended up with Andrew Suarez on a minor league contract.
This isn’t what we meant by ‘acquire a starting pitcher.’ #STLCards https://t.co/gYroBiBFr2
— STL Sports Central (@stlsportscntrl) January 27, 2023
2. Signing A Left-Handed Bat
This can be forgiven, as the Cardinals have plenty of solid lefty bats on their roster, such as Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, and Brendan Donovan.
But a proven bat would have been nice for them to have.
The Cardinals ultimately were unable to add anybody because they didn’t have an everyday role available.
Still, they could have done something simple, such as bringing back fan-favorite Matt Carpenter to split time at the designated hitter position.
It would also have allowed the team to potentially shop Paul DeJong, who has struggled in recent years.
