Trading Drew now for pitching help is too big a risk
Rick Hummel Post-Dispatch Baseball Columnist
07/29/2003
The long-term future of outfielder J.D. Drew with the Cardinals is, in a word, murky. He will make at least $5 million next season, after which he can be a free agent. And, as manager Tony La Russa points out - not referring to Drew specifically - "We've got too much money invested in our position players. We need to reconfigure that."
So, albeit a risk, it might make sense for the Cardinals to consider trading Drew for pitching help - after the season.
Not that starting pitching help isn't needed now. Like yesterday. But, the Cardinals' outfield could be terribly short if they trade Drew now, as in before Thursday's deadline for trading without waivers.
One outfield alternative to Drew, Eli Marrero, isn't due back until mid-August as he continues to recover from torn ligaments in his right ankle. Even then, the Cardinals aren't sure how regularly Marrero can play. He too, by the way, can be a free agent after next season, and might not necessarily be here for the long haul either.
Additionally, Drew is the Cardinals' No. 2 center fielder and No. 2 lefthanded power threat, and there is no guarantee that Jim Edmonds' inflamed rotator cuff won't bother him the rest of the season.
Unless general manager Walt Jocketty is totally knocked off his feet by an offer, Drew, almost fully healthy, must stay for the rest of the season.
Cardinals vice president Bob Gebhardt was in Seattle watching $6 million righthander Freddy Garcia (9-10) pitch on Sunday. Garcia's name has been linked with Drew's in Seattle. But more likely Gebhardt was there to see Texas righthander John Thomson (8-10), who won that game 7-3 and fits better into the Cardinals' price structure at a 2003 salary of $1.3 million.
A swap for Pittsburgh's Jeff Suppan, if the Cardinals had the right prospects, would seem a match. Suppan, who blanked the Cardinals here Monday, makes only $500,000 this year with a $4 million option for next year that can be bought out for another $500,000.
Drew hears the television and radio rumors the same as everybody else. Drew says the constant mention of his name really doesn't bother him. "I think it affects the guys in the clubhouse more than it does me," he said. "You come back in here every day and they say, 'What are you still doing here?'
"You can get as frustrated as you want to be but I don't think it helps win ballgames. I'm not gong to lose sleep over it and I'm not going to go crazy. It doesn't help me play better while I'm here."
A day from now, Drew will have a pretty good idea if he will finish the season here or not.
"I wish they could shorten the date and make it today and be done with it," he said the other day. "That will be a good day to get it all behind us and kind of roll on from there."
Given Drew's uncertain health history, the Cardinals probably wouldn't receive what they consider to be equal value now for him anyway. Nor does he want to go.
"I like playing in St. Louis - that's the tough thing about it," he said. "But you never know what's going to happen. It's such a business.
"Tony has stressed that this is a special team that has a chance to go to the playoffs four years in a row, which has never happened, and hopefully I'm a part of it."
Before Tuesday's game in Montreal, Drew, still recovering from offseason surgery on his right knee, had started the past four games for the Cardinals - the second time since the All-Star break he had put together two stretches of four consecutive starts.
If the Cardinals trade the 27-year-old Drew now, they might be repeating a mistake a different Cardinals regime made nearly 30 years ago.
At the end of the 1974 season, they sold a 27-year-old, underachieving outfielder to the Houston Astros for the princely sum of $25,000. His name was Jose Cruz and he went on to collect 1,937 hits for the Astros and have his number retired.