Dear Mo: Sign Zack Greinke; Update: Well, screw that

Update: Just minutes after posting, ESPN tells me I'm too late, and that Mo remains a cheapskate. The Royals welcome Zack Greinke back to his original home on a 1-year deal.

I busted St. Louis Cardinals president John Mozeliak's chops 10 days ago for claiming that Colin Moran could be the answer at DH, rather than spending for Kyle Schwarber or Anthony Rizzo, or even Kyle Seager. (Well, 4/$79M is too pricey for Schwarber, but 2/$32 for Rizzo? Might not have been bad.) I'll stand by the idea of adding Jonathan Villar, who could easily pick up 200 ABs at the three non-1B infield positions and another 300 at DH as a lefty against righty pitchers, while still letting righty bats cycle through the DH spot for a day off from the field.

(With Schwarber and Rizzo both signed now, Seager is arguably the best lefty bat, especially among ones with at least bits of power, left available, per Spotrac. And, with the Cardinals signing Corey Dickerson [why? OF depth is better on the team than IF depth, I'd argue] they're probably out of the Seager running.) 

Even further back, as in, one year ago, and before that, I've repeatedly said you can never have enough arms, and that's starters as much as or more than relievers. Well, with the Cards facing problems on both ends, with both starter Jack Flaherty AND reliever Alex Reyes being not likely to answer the Opening Day bell?

The answer there is WAS simple: Sign Greinke. (Erm, it WAS!) Given that the Brew Crew are division favorites and the Flubs have made a few moves around the edges, sitting pat won't work. And, this is just current injuries. Given the age of Adam Wainwright, there's no guarantee he'll be healthy all year. (Note that last year was his best season since 2014.) And Miles Mikolas has had his arm problems, too. And, we're still waiting to see how well Dakota Hudson is recovered from his Tommy John. (Yeah, he looked good at the end of last year, but? Small sample size.)

Last fall, when encouraging the Cardinals to look in the pitching world, even if they wouldn't pay for a Robbie Ray, only a budget Steven Matz, I suggested Greinke. And, I also said then that I did not think a Matthew Liberatore was the answer. Not the immediate answer.

As for affordability? Right now the Cards are at $147M on salaries and $164M for lux tax purposes, per Cot's Contracts. Waino's $17.5M comes off after this year, as does Yadier Molina's $10M. Mikolas' $17M ends next year. There's room to spend.

Basically, compared to last year? Let's take semi-worst case scenario and say:

Flaherty is out the year (we know now he's out the start of the season and Reyes 2 months minimum);

Ray pitches the full year;

Waino regresses, plus Waino/Mikolas/Hudson all have twinges enough to each miss about 1/3 the season.

So, that's your No. 1-3 starters, apportioning 2/3 a spot each to the latter 3. So, it's possible that Liberatore may have to be, or forced into trying to be, part of the answer. It's possible that Drew VerHagen, signed to be a reliever first, will have to be moved into the rotation. Last year, there was talk about trying to "stretch" Reyes this year. Obviously, that one isn't happening. (Sidebar: Mo talked about success in signing players who had gone to Japan as part of the reason for inking VerHagen. Dude, you had ONE year of success with Mikolas, one year of meh, and then a bunch of injuries.)

Barring serious in-season injuries to them, I think we can go ahead and hand the Brew Crew the division title right now. Question is, do the Cards currently have enough to stay ahead of the Cubs for second in the division, and for one of the six expanded playoff spots, whether they're second or third in the division? Well, I'll put the Brewers, Braves, Phillies, Dodgers and Giants ahead of them for sure. That leaves the last playoff spot and I haven't mentioned Padres or Mets. As for the division, yea, I know, latest odds still have the Reds ahead of the Cubs, which I find hard to believe. I mean, other than Marcus Stroman, the Cubs haven't had any needle-pushing moves, but, they haven't gutted their team, and haven't had any major losses, either. So, yeah, I'm fingering the Cubs to finish ahead of the Reds. That said, what this really illustrates is that the NL Central basically sucks right now.