Here’s some fun, Cardinals-related lulz to break up your afternoon.
Take it away, Cardinals President of Baseball Operations, John Mozeliak:
Mozeliak on free agent market: There’s a lot of opportunity and we are open and in the market but I have a responsibility to manage the finances in a smart way … We’ve consistently won without a face of the franchise player post-Pujols era #STLcards
— KMOXSports (@KMOXSports) October 16, 2018
… have you, though?
Setting aside the wisdom of avoiding top free agents – who tend, obviously, to be the priciest – in service of being “smart” about “finances,” can the Cardinals credibly claim they have “consistently won” after Albert Pujols departed before the 2012 season?
To be sure, the Cardinals were absolutely right not to drop a monster contract on Pujols himself, but they haven’t exactly experienced tremendous success since then. Although they made the postseason in each of the first four years after his departure, they lost in the NLCS, World Series, NLCS, and NLDS (go Cubs), respectively, in those four years. In the next three years – the most recent three – the Cardinals averaged 85.67 wins per season, finished 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd in the NL Central, and missed the playoffs all three years.
So … uh … well, you can read the replies to that tweet to see how Cardinals fans feel about the idea that they’ve “consistently won” in the post-Pujols era. A sampling: