Renteria's Contract Tops To-Do List
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
February 20, 2004
JUPITER, Fla. -- Congratulations, Walt Jocketty. You've locked up your best player long-term. Go have a nice dinner, get a good night's rest. ... And start worrying about how you're going to keep your 100-RBI shortstop and the ace of your starting rotation.
Edgar Renteria and Matt Morris can both be free agents at the end of this year, so the fun has just begun for the St. Louis front office. The team has already made a two-year offer to Morris -- and seen it rejected. Serious negotiations have not yet begun with Renteria's representation.
"We certainly would like to keep Edgar Renteria as a Cardinal," said the team's primary owner, William O. DeWitt Jr. "As you know, this is his last year. I'm not going to speak for Walt here, but we want to keep our good players. And we'll be competitive."
It won't be easy, however. With eight figures each due to Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds in the 2005 season, it could be tough to find the money to pay Renteria and Morris. The team believes it will gain some payroll flexibility in 2006, when it moves into a new stadium, but will that be enough to pay for two more stars in '05?
Jocketty will certainly try to make it happen. Renteria, the National League's best all-around shortstop, has now become the top item on the GM's to-do list.
"That's probably the next thing," Jocketty said. "We did talk to them at one point during the year. It was postponed until after the season. And then we were focusing on No. 1, getting the team in place, then getting Albert's deal done."
Morris could conceivably be the odd man out, despite his being the dean of the current club. The homegrown anchor of the starting rotation has not been able to follow up his breakthrough 2001 season with another similarly dominant campaign. In '02, he was greatly affected by the loss of friend, mentor and teammate Darryl Kile, and saw his ERA increase and his win total decline. He battled a series of injuries in '03 and watched both those indicators head in the wrong direction again.
Renteria, on the other hand, posted career numbers in '03. He batted .330 with a .394 on-base percentage and .480 slugging percentage, rapped out 47 doubles and drove in 100 runs. He also won his second Gold Glove.
Originally, Renteria's contract provided the Cards with club options for 2004 and 2005. However, the club declined to pick up one of those options after Renteria's rough 2001 campaign. Now they must find a way to keep him around, or face the prospect of trying to replace him.
"I think that obviously would be our next focus, to try and work on Edgar," Jocketty said. "Hopefully we can do that. Edgar's another one of the cornerstone players of our club. He's a key element of our everyday club that we have to try to re-sign."
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