The Cardinals Decline Arbitration On Looper And Springer

Springer I sort of understand. He's 39, his last two seasons are fairly unusual compared to the rest of his career, and the Cardinals have plenty of options for the right-handed side of the bullpen, so Springer would have been a luxury, I suppose.

Lopper is less sensible on the surface. The Cards' rotation is currently Wainwright, Lohse, Wellenmeyer, Piniero, and Boggs, or Carpenter if he gets healthy (don't bet on it). Wainwright had to miss over 2 months this year with an injury, Wellenmeyer is coming off a career high in innings, and Piniero is just not good. It doesn't seem like a bad idea to at least offer Loop arbitration. If he accepts, you sign him to a one-year deal for $6 million or so, and in theory he helps shore up the back half of your bullpen. If he declines, you get a draft pick when some other team signs him.

I'm really not sure what the thinking is here. The explanation I've heard most often is that the current economic situation has teams worried, so they're going to resist spending on free agents, the marginal ones at least. Perhaps the Cardinals expect that if they wait until Spring Training, they'll be able to make another Kyle Lohse-like signing. If every team opts for that strategy, I'm not sure it'll work, and I'm not certain how sound of a strategy for building a team it is anyway, but it makes more sense than anything else I can think of, as Looper doesn't seem like he would have been that costly.