Over the weekend the St. Louis Cardinals addressed their shortstop hole by signing free agent Jhonny Peralta to a four-year deal worth in upwards of $53 million dollars. This of course came despite Peralta’s 50-game PED suspension last season with the Tigers, the lack of range he has at the position and the fact that he’s going to be 32 years old come the end of May next season.
Some Cards fans seemed to be scratching their head regarding the move which prompted the team’s GM to release the following statement via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
One of the things we looked at when acquiring a shortstop was the amount of acquisition cost. For us, the asking price in the trade market seemed very prohibitive. There are two top shortstop candidates in the market, and one of the differences between them is there’s a righthanded hitter and a lefthanded hitter. We’re looking for a fit.
There’s no word on what exactly the asking price was in return for a short stop. Aaron Gleeman of NBC Sports lightly speculates at the possibility of it being Shelby Miller and Matt Adams. Mozeliak was also disinterested in giving up a draft pick to sign Stephen Drew which I guess is understandable from it’s own standpoint. But then again Peralta is getting paid primarily based off what he did in a shortened season last year at the plate in which he hit .303 with 11 home runs and 55 RBIs. Other than that he’s never batted above .300 in his career and remains a decent .268 guy. Then there’s the defense which Mozeliak is clearly rolling the dice on.
