The Phillies announced today that they have acquired international bonus pool availability from the Cardinals. In exchange, lefty Elniery Garcia heads to the St. Louis organization.
While the value of the bonus availability isn’t known, it’ll obviously boost the Phils’ international spending capacity for the July 2nd signing period that just began. Having inked two qualified free agents, which cost $500K in international space apiece, the club only had $3,983,500 to work with at the outset.
On the other side of the ledger, it’s no surprise to see the Cards move some dollars. Owing to prior excess spending — no longer permitted under the new signing rules — the Cardinals are not permitted to use more than $300K on any given player in this year’s class.
As for Garcia, he has at times been viewed as a prospect of some note, even getting some organizational top-ten billing entering the 2017 campaign. But he sat out eighty games last year after testing positive for banned PED boldenone.
Since returning, the 23-year-old has not been quite as impressive. He did not thrive in the Arizona Fall League and has struggled this season in a repeat of the Double-A level. Through 42 1/3 innings in 2018, Garcia carries a 6.38 ERA with just 6.2 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.
Garcia used to be a pretty neat prospect. Pretty big fail since his PED rip
Championship.
What did Branch Ricky used to say? Quality through quantity. Cards should take dozens of fliers on less costly picks and see what sticks…..
The Cubs signed 44 in the last cycle.
WTF are the Cardinals doing?
lifelong cardinal fan. when the old dope doesn’t work anymore, you have to try some new dope.
Problem is, the SAME dope is still running the show.
Love it! Totally agree on that dope for sure. This team needs a complete face lift. Thanks to Mo and his low hanging fruit, bad contracts, and questionable talent evaluation we will be missing the postseason for the 3 straight year. Thanks Mozeliak!
They can’t spend their international bonus pool on any significant prospects, so you may as well trade it all away for prospects that could possibly contribute at the major league level. If they don’t use it, it just goes to waste
Or, you could get hordes of guys in the $40,000 range, and hope they mature.
Glad they’re choosing this method.
So they trade it for a guy coming off an 80 day PED suspension in 2017 with an ERA NORTH of 6.00 this year in the minors? Like I said, WTF are the Cardinals doing?
He did reasonably well in the Arizona Fall League.
He told you what they are doing, not his fault you are too stupid to understand. You don’t even know what they gave or what other options they had for using the $. Stop being a negative douche or tell us exactly what you would have done with the $ if it was up to you. If you don’t have a specific answer stfu.
Yes, I’m a douche. Yes, I should shut up. I’ll just take your stance, bury my head in the sand, and just watch Mozeliak do his thing. The Cardinals have $300K in pool money to spend. When I have access to the tools Mozeliak has, I’ll be happy to tell what I would do. Meanwhile, your little “what would you do or STFU” argument is a MOOT point. I can tell you what I wouldn’t do, and that’s trade for a busted PED user. How’s that for STFU?
News flash it is almost a certainty that we root for players who either use PEDs or have used them in the past. Just because a player hasn’t been busted doesn’t mean they haven’t partaked. He deserves a second chance, short of murder and rape everyone does. We aren’t going to use the money so why the heck not take a flyer on a guy who might eventually turn into something special. If he doesn’t then what do we lose? Nothing. I don’t see a problem with this. It’s like a lotto ticket if you win you’re rich, if not you lost a few bucks oh well.
He doesn’t get it, you just can’t fix stupid. He must not realize that we need $500k to go out and sign a player. He thinks since the team has problems that every move made will directly correlate.
Daved…… Did you forget that John Mozeliak does all of the wheeling and dealing for the Cardinals?? That’s his idea of Great deals to resurrect the Cardinals!! Been doing that same fantastic job since 2012 after LaRussa left. His moves have lead toward inadvertently tanking of the Cardinals over the past 5 years. When Mozeliak is gone, the Cardinal teams will get better!!!
so true
Mo started as GM after the ‘07 season. In that time the Cardinals have been to the playoffs 6 times, 2 NL pennants and 1 WS victory. Also, I’m fairly certain that the team has never finished under .500 on his watch and I think he has executive of the year awards. Guess he just got lucky. I don’t agree with everything he does, and in the last few seasons even less so. But your rant is a bunch of hyperbole.
His recent 3 year run of moves have mostly been a disaster. Hence, the downturn in the team’s play as they look to continue the playoff drought to 3 years. But keep living off 2011, Mozeliak is, so I guess the fans should too,
Blame John Mabry for that. Lots of you Cardinals fan hate him.
Living of 2011? C’mon man we lost the WS in ‘13, that’s not bad. I mean the end sucked but we won the NL. We have 3 division titles since 2011, have went to the playoffs 4 times and have not been under .500 since the year before Mo took over, 2007.
I don’t like a lot of the moves in recent years. I thought the Allen Craig contract was excessive. I didn’t like the Leake signing at all. I wasn’t excited about Fowler, but I was hopeful. Wong seemingly isn’t working out well but I thought he was going to be our 2B of the future. But a lot of the good outweighs the bad. He hosed Boston when he traded away Craig IMO.
You are pissing and moaning over this routine and incremental transaction like a spoiled brat.
Cardinals fans are insufferable.
Trolls are insufferable. His problem is stupidity, not being a cards fan.
Unfortunately though most cardinal fans agree with him. We’re so spoiled it hurts. I love the cardinals but I gotta want us to just suck terribly for the next decade so fans like him will either jump off the bandwagon or open their eyes and see how nice we have it
People forget we had the best player in the World for 10 years before he left for LA. It’s not really easy to fill that void. OT’s death didn’t help either.
DeWitt Jr. says he still likes this team the Cardinals has as a team to win a wild card position!!! Are you kindling me??? He must be blind or just doesn’t want to spend money again. Mozeliak has wasted more money on his signings and trades than it would take to get Machado!!!
If he can play right field we’re in business!
Why would any player want to come to the Cardinals as
Long as John Mozeliak is the president of baseball operations. Many players have voice that opinion lately. Obviously, Jason Heyward’s Low assessment of the Cardinals front office was correct, when he declined to resign with the Cards!!!
Moz went over the IFA cap alternating limit last year…. But nowhere near the level of every other team that did. The Padres outspent the Cardinals at a 4:1 ratio. Why don’t the Cardinals go big or go home? They went little and will still go home with little to no chance of striking gold. Look at all of the IFA prospects other clubs are signing! The Cardinals big signing was… Jonatan Machado. Wow. Weak. Sickens me as a fan.