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St. Louis Cardinals
Scouting Report
By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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Things are looking up for DeShields and the Cardinals—if
their sluggers and starters stay
healthy.
(Bill Frakes)
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Owners
chafe at the idea of making a millionaire out of a bench player,
but Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty considers
himself fortunate to have a boss who "understands the
game and the importance of role players." General
partner Bill DeWitt has known since
he was nine years old the value of contributions from the
little guy. That's when, as a batboy for the
St. Louis Browns, he surrendered his uniform to Eddie Gaedel,
the
3'7" pinch hitter made famous by impresario owner Bill
Veeck.
"They turned my number 6 into a
one eighth," says DeWitt, whose father worked in Veeck's
front office and later had similar jobs with other clubs.
"The uniform was still a little big on
Eddie."
DeWitt's not the type to mimic Veeck's shenanigans, but he
does bring rare perspective to the owner's box. "I
grew up around the game," he says. Such credentials
make him the antithesis of his predecessor in St. Louis,
August A.
Busch III, whose dislike of baseball prompted his selling of a
family
heirloom.
In his third year of ownership, DeWitt has turned the
Cardinals into the free-spending gorilla of the National
League Central. Last season he took a gamble by trading
three young pitchers for Mark McGwire, knowing the big first baseman was eligible to flee after
two months, as a free agent. He then signed McGwire to a
three-year,
$30 million deal. He also gave a
second-round draft pick, high school pitcher Richard
Ankiel, a
$2.5 million bonus. "We can't match offers with the
large-market teams for free agents," DeWitt says.
"But we're prepared to compete for amateur
players."
Says Jocketty, "Ownership has been willing to stretch
things to make the ball club better. It paid dividends in
'96 [when the Cards won the NL Central], and I believe it
would have paid dividends last year if not for a lot of
injuries."
This season DeWitt has spent
$50 million on a deep, experienced team. The Cardinals brought
29 players with at least two years of major league service
to camp. Outfielder Willie McGee
($1.4 million) and catcher Tom Pagnozzi
($2.1 million), for instance, figure to be largely bench-bound
investments. But DeWitt admits he so far exceeded his
budget that he will ask some players to restructure their
contracts to pull the payroll down to $47 million. That
total might have been higher
if St. Louis had succeeded in retaining righthander Andy
Benes (10-7, 3.10
ERA in '97).
The Cardinals offered him
$32 million over five years after initially saying they would
not guarantee more than three. But Benes's agent, Scott
Boras, demanded an extra $500,000. The Cards eventually
acceded, though only after missing a
Dec. 7 deadline for clubs to sign their own free agents. The
deal was voided, and Benes signed with the Diamondbacks.
St. Louis sunk only a fraction of that money into replacing
him with lefthander Kent Mercker. "I wish Andy were
still here," McGwire says.
"But there's no reason why an agent should allow a deal like
that to come down to the last minute. They had months to
work something
out."
DeWitt admits that St. Louis's famously loyal fan base
allows him to spend more freely than most teams, though he
says, "We need the postseason to make money. Our goal
is to run a viable business—to make money in the good
years to carry us in the bad
years."
Despite losing 89 games last season, the Cardinals drew
2.6 million fans—more than four of the eight postseason clubs.
This season DeWitt thinks the club might reach three
million for the third time in franchise history. Baseball
thrives in
St. Louis even in lean years, because it remains largely
unchallenged at the forefront of the city's sports
consciousness. The city hasn't fielded an NBA team in 30
years, and its NFL teams have never played for a league
championship.
The appeal of playing in
St. Louis will be tested after this season, when Pagnozzi,
outfielder Brian Jordan, infielders Gary Gaetti, Delino
DeShields and Royce Clayton, and pitcher Todd Stottlemyre
are all eligible for free agency. "What I tell free
agents," Jocketty says, "is that
we're not going to be the high bidders, but we can be
competitive and offer other things players are looking
for."
To get a peek at their owner's boyhood uniform, however,
will require a trip out of town. DeWitt loaned out his
famous threads a second time—to the Hall of
Fame.
—by Tom Verducci
Scouting Report | By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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