ST. LOUIS (KMOX)- The Cardinals have had a very active Thanksgiving week, already signing two pitchers from reuniting with starting pitcher Lance Lynn and signing former Mizzou pitcher Kyle Gibson. Both players got one-year deals with a 2025 option, albeit a little different price points.
With the Cardinals, its offseason goals are clear: strengthen a rotation that lost a lot of innings and struggled poorly, finishing 26th in ERA and 19th in fWAR (Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement).
However, the Cardinals quest to add more starting pitchers so far has raised some eyebrows from the fanbase. While many are hoping the team goes after Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Sonny Gray in free agency to improve the staff, some, justifiably, felt disappointed the team signed Lynn and Gibson both pitchers who didn't necessarily have great seasons.
Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak, however, is promising that there are 'more moves to come' and signing Gibson and Lynn is just the start during a press conference to announce both moves Tuesday.
"This is not the finish line. This is just a day in time and there's still a lot of work to be done," said Mozeliak.
Mozeliak said signing Lynn and Gibson were both moves where from the team standpoint, they didn't want to put an unnecessary burden or set unrealistic expectations on the younger pitchers in their system like Gordon Graceffo and Zach Thompson.
“We brought two guys in that know how to do it, what to do, and why they’re doing it,” said Mozeliak. "I think the approach of last year versus this year is just different. Young players may emerge and they may surprise us, but what we don’t want to end up doing is saying we’re counting on X, Y and Z and then we end up being disappointed."
Mozeliak also said the team wanted to prioritize depth first at the moment before they touch the top side of the market, one that is still bit slow to develop.
"I certainly didn't want to position ourselves where we are losing opportunities for depth," said Mozeliak. "Getting two veterans and guys who know the ropes, we internally believe this is a good first step and moves that will stabilize our club."
"These guys weren't going to be here tomorrow. If we waited too long, I think we wouldn't have gotten the types of players we were looking for."
Granted to Mozeliak's point, the baseball offseason is still in its early days, Yamamoto and Gray are still on the market and with the Winter Meetings coming next week, there is still a chance for the team to sign either or go after someone like Tyler Glasnow, Shane Bieber, or Dylan Cease on the trade front, the latter being a market Mozeliak says 'they have not yet delve in yet'