11:56am: John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle tweets that the deal is official, and Winn will be available for today's game.
10:19am: The Cardinals are close to signing outfielder Randy Winn, according to the team's official Twitter feed. He was designated for assignment by the Yankees about a week ago.
Winn, 36 next week, hit just .213/.300/.295 in 71 plate appearances for the Yanks, and his merely average defensive performance wasn't even getting him playing time as a late-inning defense replacement by the end of his tenure. The Yanks are still on the hook for his $1.1MM salary, less the pro-rated portion of the league minimum that St. Louis will pay him.
ummm…. Why?
I’m not sure I understand how adding Randy Winn is going to improve the Cardinals right now, especially for for an outfield. One would think they would be more active in pitching.
I smell a trade of either Jay or Stav… hopefully for a 4th or 5th quality starter. There is more to this than just signing Winn for the heck of it. They’re getting ready to open a hole for him on the bench to hopefully fill their need for pitching.
Good call, I had assumed Tony was taking a liking to having his “Baby Bench”. But adding a veteran pitcher does make sense.
The Cardinals may need pitching, but there is a lot more to understand in the major leagues by adding Winn who has proven over time that he is a good player. All he really needs is a chance to play more than he did with the Yankees. The Yankees never truly gave him a chance. Winn is an everyday player and if the Cardinals will give him a real opportunity, then his positive attitude and athletic ability will rise to the occasion.
How is Winn going to get PT with the Cardinals? They have 3 very solid outfielders that should play almost every day. I would be mad if I was a Cards fan and he took AB’s away from any of the OF.
I realize that Winn getting any extended playing time with the Cards is a longshot, but it brings up an interesting hypothetical. The Cards are responsible for a pro-rated portion of the MLB minimum for Winn, but he also has incentives for PA’s vs. LHP’s (grading from $100k up to $700k for 50 to 200 PA’s). This odd incentive reflects his dismal slash lines batting right-handed over the last two seasons.
So, again hypothetically, who is responsible for paying these incentives … Yanks or Cards (or both pro-rated)?
Why not play Nick Stavinoha, Joe Mather or Allen Craig? They need opportunities, and Winn takes some away from them.
Mather and Craig are at AAA
Yeah, and they could be called up. Winn takes up big league roster space. They’ve also played in the bigs this year. Mather plays plus D and Craig’s bat is better than Winn’s.
if only there were some way to transfer them from the memphis roster to the big league roster!
Wow, didn’t realize how big Douche Bags some Cardinals fans are
Why are they D-bags? Because they responded in a witty way? You really can’t say that they are wrong in their reasoning….if I had the choice I’d go with Mather, Craig, Jay, or even Lopez playing a corner over Winn.
Looks like he just took the roster spot of Jon Jay who flashed his arm off a few times and hit .302 with a homer. Hope Mo knows what he’s doing, ’cause I certainly don’t see the logic unless Tony needed a “veteran off the bench” like he always pines for.
They are better off getting Jay regular ABs at Memphis than just playing him once a week with the big league club. The founding father and 1st Supreme Court chief justice will be back up at the end of the season.
Although LaRussa’s reputation for overrating veterans and undervaluing young guys has to play a small role as well…
Wow i hate this move, especially considering how great Jay has been off the bench so far.
This isn’t half as bad as having Miles taking up a roster spot but still would think the Cards would rather have Jay taking AB’s than Winn since Jay has shown he can hit a ML level in his limited opportunities so far. But Bringing up Miles was ridiculous and I’m really starting to question if TLR still has it as a manager
who did the yankees get for Winn they had to get somebody
His first at bat for the Cardinals he had a sacrifice fly to drive in the tying run and his next at hit the ball deep but for an out. They kept throwing him breaking balls though which they Yankees released him because he can’t catch up to the fast ball. I wonder if the Brewers missed that memo?
His first at bat for the Cardinals he had a sacrifice fly to drive in the tying run and his next at hit the ball deep but for an out. They kept throwing him breaking balls though which they Yankees released him because he can’t catch up to the fast ball. I wonder if the Brewers missed that memo?