There are many St. Louis Cardinals fans who aren’t crazy about Wednesday’s trade that sent underachieving outfielder Colby Rasmus to the Toronto Blue Jays.
An eight-player deal was struck with the Cardinals sending Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters to the Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson and three players to be named or cash considerations.
On the surface, the trade seems timely considering St. Louis’ needs. The club also rid themselves of four players who simply weren’t producing, and it’s no secret that Rasmus and manager Tony LaRussa didn’t get along.
But aside from the trade, the biggest issue surrounding the deal centers on what Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said a few weeks ago.
Mozeliak told anyone who wanted to listen that the rumors circulating about the possibility of Rasmus being traded weren’t true, and that the team had no intention of making the centerfielder available at the trade deadline.
So much for speaking truth to power.
Perhaps Mozeliak was trying to keep other clubs guessing while he quietly negotiated a deal to improve the Cardinals chances of winning the NL Central, but the trade with Toronto isn’t going to help much.
The Cardinals have shown a propensity throughout this season where they have frequent lapses of varying kinds, be it poor fielding, a lack of hitting, terrible bullpen pitching or bad base running.
In other words, trading Rasmus isn’t going to solve most of those problems.
Mozeliak is the object of much criticism in St. Louis, mostly because he’s viewed as a bean counter and someone who is nothing more than a lap dog for owner Bill DeWitt and LaRussa.
When Mozeliak announced that he wasn’t going to trade Rasmus and then did the exact opposite, he didn’t help himself in the eyes of Cardinals fans.
Rasmus was once considered to be the jewel of the Cardinals farm system and the centerfielder of the future.
After showing some improvement last season following his rookie year in 2009, Rasmus seemed to digress this year. In 94 games with the Cardinals, he was hitting .246 with 11 HR’s and 40 RBI’s in 338 AB’s.
In contrast, John Jay – the player who will replace Rasmus in centerfield for St. Louis – is hitting .311 with 7 HR’s and 27 RBI’s in 264 AB’s.
Projecting his stats with an equal number of at-bats, Jay would be hitting at a higher average and producing similar power numbers. And he’s already proven that he plays much better defense than Rasmus.
Getting rid of Rasmus really isn’t the issue. It’s the perception Cardinals fans have of Mozeliak, DeWitt and LaRussa. Ever since former GM Walt Jocketty was forced out in St. Louis, the Cardinals haven’t produced a playoff win since 2006.
And despite all the personnel moves made by St. Louis over the past five seasons, the club still hasn’t positioned itself to be a serious contender to win the NL pennant, much less the Central division.
Adding to the frustration was the club’s inability to sign free agent to-be Albert Pujols during the offseason, forcing the Cards front office to deal with yet another major personnel decision.
It’s for those reasons that Cardinals’ fans don’t like the trade because it’s viewed as yet another move that won’t have positive results, and Cards fans are right to think that way.
Mozeliak and LaRussa knew the Cardinals bullpen situation was abysmal dating to last season, yet the club did nothing to address the problems.
The club’s wait until it’s too late approach clearly hasn’t worked, and it never will. Now that they’ve traded another promising prospect to address problems that were well-known leading into the season, Cardinals fans have had more than they can stomach from team management.
