The St. Louis Cardinals agreed to financial terms with five of their seven arbitration-eligible players Tuesday, setting up likely hearings with two of their three starting outfielders.
Various media reports confirmed starter Jack Flaherty agreed to a $5 million contract, starter Dakota Hudson agreed to a $1.05 million contract, and reliever Jordan Hicks agreed to a $937,500 contract.
Relievers Giovanny Gallegos and Alex Reyes also came to agreements, though financial terms were not immediately available. The Cardinals did not officially confirm any of the amounts.
Outfielders Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill did not agree on their 2022 salaries before Tuesday’s noon central deadline for players and teams to exchange figures. The Cardinals, in past years under president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, have been known as a “file and trial” team; once figures have been exchanged, the club’s policy is to proceed to a hearing — save for agreement to a long-term contract.
A source said Tuesday the Cardinals and O’Neill have not had any discussions about such a contract.
Bader is in his second year of arbitration eligibility and O’Neill is in his first. Both had outstanding seasons in 2021 from which to platform their arguments for significant salaries, with Bader winning his first Gold Glove and O’Neill winning his second consecutive while finishing eighth in National League Most Valuable Player voting.
Flaherty and the Cardinals went to a hearing in 2021 to determine the righthander’s salary, and Flaherty emerged victorious. It was the club’s first loss at an arbitration hearing since 1994, when a ruling was handed down in favor of first baseman Gregg Jefferies.
The Cardinals also announced they came to terms with 20 of their 21 pre-arbitration eligible players. Right fielder Dylan Carlson, the third starter next to Bader and O’Neill, had his salary renewed, meaning it was dictated to him by the team rather than mutually agreed upon.
Flaherty twice opted for renewal rather than agreement in the pre-arbitration period of his career, seeking to avoid ever having been on record accepting a lower salary than he believed reflected his true value. Hicks once did the same.
The Cardinals, in each of those years, imparted a salary on the pitchers that was $10,000 less than their initial offer, reflecting a penalty for rejecting the amount offered by the team.
Spring training update
Tuesday also saw the first cuts of spring training, as the Cardinals optioned left-handed reliever Brandon Waddell to the Triple-A Memphis roster and assigned pitcher Trent Baker, catcher Pedro Pages, and infielders Luken Baker, Delvin Pérez, and top prospect Jordan Walker to minor league camp.
Under the terms of the sport’s new collective bargaining agreement, a player may only be optioned to the minor leagues five times in a given year before requiring placement on waivers in order to be moved off the big league roster. Waddell’s assignment marks his first — and for the Cardinals, the first such move to be tracked under the new rules.
