by Dylan Tucker
On July 24, 2009, the St. Louis Cardinals acquired outfielder Matt Holliday from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen, and Shane Peterson. The Cardinals had been searching for a big bat to couple with Albert Pujols, and Holliday was the answer. The A’s agreed to pick up $1.5 million of the approximate $5.385 million left on his 2009 contract, leaving the Cardinals with $3.885 million to add to their 2009 payroll.
When Holliday was acquired, only .5 games separated the Cardinals from the Cubs in the National League Central standings. Albert Pujols was producing as expected, but the lineup was not providing enough protection for him. Before Holliday joined the Cardinals, Pujols had been intentionally walked 21 times more than anyone else in the majors and had posted a sub-par (by Pujols standards) triple-slash line of .289/.415/.485 in July. In that month alone, Pujols was intentionally walked 12 times. The presence of Holliday took that luxury away from pitchers, and Pujols was intentionally walked only 8 times the rest of the season and posted a triple-slash of .340/.442/.632.
Holliday hadn’t posted numbers anywhere close to those of an elite player in his brief stint in the American League. He was decent at the plate (.286/.378/.454), but only hit 11 homers in 400 plate appearances. Holliday got his groove back, however, after joining the Cardinals and posted a line of .353/.419/.604 while mashing 13 homers and driving in 55 runs in just 270 plate appearances. Just one month after acquiring Holliday, the Cardinals 20-6 August record had all but locked up the NL Central and St. Louis entered the season’s final month with a 10-game lead. The Cardinals struggled in September, going just 13-13, but still won the division comfortably. Holliday was the superstar that the Cardinals were expecting in the regular season, but he had a disappointing post season. Not only was Holliday 2 for 12 at the dish, but he dropped a fly ball in game two of the NLDS that likely would have lead to a Cardinals win and a tied series. Instead, the Cardinals were swept, 3-0, by the Dodgers.
Adding a superstar caliber player like Holliday gave the franchise another face to plaster on posters and advertisements. Holliday’s jersey quickly became the second-most purchased Cardinals uniform, and those numbers will continue to rise. The Cardinals attendance of 3.3 million was the third best number in the National League and Busch Stadium had at least 40,000 fans in the stands at all but one of the games played after Holliday starting manning left field.
In order to acquire Holliday the Cardinals departed with highly-touted third base prospect Brett Wallace along right-handed pitcher Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson. The 2010 Baseball Prospectus seems to think that the Cardinals didn’t lose too much, unless A’s general manager Billy Beane is seeing something that they don’t. The team at the Prospectus describes Wallace, 22, who has since been traded to Toronto, as a defensive nightmare that projects to an average first-base bat. Mortensen, 24, has a big-league sinking fastball, but appears to be best suited for middle relief in the big leagues. Peterson, 21, is probably the most intriguing of the three and is said to have a great line-drive swing and plus speed.
The Cardinals rewarded Holliday in the offseason with a ridiculous 7-year contract worth $120 million. In 2010, Holliday will be the highest paid Cardinal and his $17 million, despite dropping Julio Lugo’s $9 million plus, will push the Cardinals to a payroll of approximately $90 million.
In my opinion, the trade for Holliday was a great one. He provided the extra pop in the lineup and the protection for Pujols that the Cardinals so desperately needed. The Cardinals 20-6 August record can be almost directly attributed to the addition of Holliday. Holliday’s playoff performance was forgettable, but he was a big part of leading St. Louis to the postseason. Also, it seems like the Cardinals were able to acquire Holliday without sacrificing too much of their farm system. Wallace is generally viewed as an extremely overrated prospect, Mortensen is already being deemed a big-league reliever, and Peterson has yet to show the power and patience of a star outfielder. So, the Cardinals get an A for their 2009 blockbuster with the A’s.
The problem now, though, is that Holliday is likely past his prime and declining speed and power is already evident. The 36 dingers of 2007 and the 28 stolen bases of 2008 are probably long in the rear-view mirror. If Holliday posts numbers like he did in the second half of last year, then bravo to the Cardinals, but most projections see his numbers taking a dip. With Pujols’ contract expiring in 2011 an extension is a likely, and the Cardinals are on track to have two aging players accounting for over $40 million by 2012. If the Cardinals are going to make it back to the World Series in the foreseeable future, they need to do it in 2010 or 2011.
Two questions. 1) What does this have to do with KC? 2) If it took so little to get Holiday, why didn’t a team like the Royals get him?
Steverino:
1.) Nothing at all, but I mentioned I would be posting stuff from the class I’m taking, and thought it was fairly interesting.
2.)
a.) The prospects the A’s got were pretty highly regarded, just mistakenly so.
b.) The Royals need all the prospects they can get. They are not even close to being a team that can contend just by adding a $17 mil-a-year outfielder that handcuffs your payroll.
The Roys need to build through the draft, which is something that they have failed miserably at in the last decade. Hopefully, the great pitching prospects in the low minors (Montgomery, Melville, Dwyer, etc.) make an impact in the majors in a couple of years. KC also desperately needs either Moustakas or Hosmer to have a great season this year, but I’m not optimistic that that will happen.
Yea sorry for question number one, totally forgot about the GM deal. But as far as question two goes, the royals need to show some gusto. Sure its nice to say we have prospects that are on the way. How many years does it take before people see that having prospects doesn’t win at the major league level. I guess what I’m trying to say is Dayton needs to dabble in every apect of building a team. Not just by signing more latin players than other teams. Not just by building through the draft. not just by signing mediocre free agents. Why not go after some big names? How can he expect to put people in the seats with this product? We just added to the stadium, they can’t expect to be compensated for that unless they start winning. Even the “small market” Twins are adding to the payroll after building their new stadium. I think they are showing that they get it, while the Royals are not.