Arbitration Wrap-Up...

Here is a list of the 24 MLB players who were offered arbitration this year. If the Cards were to sign a Type A free agent, they would be required to give up a draft pick to the player's former team. If St. Louis signs a Type B free agent, the player's former team will receive a compensatory "sandwich" pick in the draft, but St. Louis would not give up a draft spot in the deal.

Meanwhile, St. Louis will not receive any draft picks for losing its own free agents this year, because the Cardinals chose, for some reason, not to offer arbitration to any of their players. The one name that really stands out here is Braden Looper. And I guess there are a couple of ways to look at this roster decision:

1) The Cards screwed-up royally. Looper will almost certainly get a multi-year deal on the open market, so he was very likely to turn down the offer of arbitration. The Cardinals, in the name of "cost certainty," chose not to take the calculated risk of offering arbitration to Looper, thus costing themselves a compensatory pick in the next MLB draft.

OR

2) The Cards want "cost certainty" because they plan to make one or more offers to other available starting pitchers. They could not risk Looper accepting the offer of arbitration because they need to know exactly how much money they have to spend to make a move or three this offseason.

Let's hope we're not seeing a Mozeliak "screw-up" or, even worse, an ownership group that has decided to cut costs. Looper may have received a $2-3 million raise in arbitration, but he also would've been a serviceable and reliable 4th or 5th starter for the Cardinals next season. In my opinion, offering arbitration to Looper was a no-brainer, as he was 99% sure not to accept the offer.