Last we’d heard, David Eckstein was expected to leave the Cardinals and sign with the White Sox, Tigers, or Mets. However, the Cards’ team spokesman said two days ago when Joel Pineiro was signed that John Mozeliak’s next order of business was to re-sign Eckstein.

Eckstein earned $4.5MM this season in the last year of his three-year deal. He turns 33 in January, and has averaged 120 games in the last two seasons. Eckstein has a solid career OBP of .351. There’s some great point-counterpoints about whether the Cards should re-sign him. Their best estimate is that he would earn about $6-7MM per year on a two or three-year deal. The Cards stand to net some solid draft picks if they let Eckstein walk in favor of Brendan Ryan or an external candidate.

I don’t think Ryan is ready to handle the everyday SS position. Can we spend $6-8 million for Renteria or Tejada?



By: on Oct 18th, 2007
Tagged as: Cardinal Small Talk