Jhonny Peralta and the Cardinals have reached agreement worth a little more than $52 million according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The deal was first reported by Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.
Peralta, 31, hit .303/.358/.457 with 30 doubles, 11 homers and 55 RBI in just 107 games last year, and in between he served a 50-game suspension due to his ties to Biogenesis.
Not bad… Do PEDs, serve your 50 games, double your average annual salary… And you wonder why players still cheat…
This deal will certainly drive up the price for Stephen Drew and I’m sure Scott Boras is grinning from ear to ear right now…
A lack of quality shortstops drove up the price for Peralta and he won’t cost the Cardinals a draft pick. Drew will likely get more and cost the signing team a pick. The Cards are ahead of the curve, $13 million a year and the deal runs through Peralta’s age 34 season.
The Mets really never had a chance to land Peralta or even Drew for that matter. These two were never realistic options in my opinion regardless of what was being reported. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what the circumstances are in Flushing.
Meanwhile, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York assesses the aftermath for the Mets:
Drew clearly is above the Mets’ spending appetite. And the choices become very thin after that. Rafael Furcal missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Sandy Alderson said last week that it’s not even clear if Furcal has started throwing. Other shortstops on the free-agent board include ex-Met Ronny Cedeno, who has no chance of being asked back, as well as Clint Barmes, Cesar Izturis, Munenori Kawasaki and John McDonald.
So it’s either a trade with teams who all know the Mets are hard up and have little leverage, or get used to the idea of Ruben Tejada getting back into the Mets’ good graces.
