Cardinals' John Mozeliak Implies St. Louis Lost Bidding War For Frontline Starter

St. Louis will move on to other targets in the vast starting pitching market

Scott Neville | Nov 20, 2023

Cardinals' John Mozeliak Implies St. Louis Lost Bidding War For Frontline Starter /

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St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals will have one less player to negotiate with as one of the top starting pitchers has come off the board.

The Philadelphia Phillies have re-signed Aaron Nola to a lucrative seven-year, $172 million contract according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Nola had been a long-rumored top target for St. Louis. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak appeared to reveal that he was involved in the bidding.

“I had a brief exchange with (Nola’s) agent this morning, so I was aware this might be happening," Mozeliak told KMOX's Tom Ackerman on Sunday regarding Nola's new deal. "It does sound like there’s a really strong desire to go back to Philly.”

Now it's possible that Mozeliak was talking about Nola's agent -- likely referring to either Joe Longo or Garrett Parcell of Paragon Sports International -- regarding another free agent or some internal players such as Brendan Donovan or Matthew Liberatore.

However, the conversation of Nola signing with the Phillies did occur, which implies a level of interest in the right-hander. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold reported that the Cardinals never made an official offer to Nola but he'd also spent the weeks leading up to free agency linking the two sides together.

Mozeliak must have shown some level of interest -- which aligns with Goold and many other's previous reports that St. Louis had strong preliminary interest in Nola. It also would explain why Nola's agents gave Mozeliak a courtesy call before news broke.

It does sound as if the Cardinals had more interest in other top targets -- which could include Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Sonny Gray among others.

Hopefully they have keyed in on at least two notable arms and are making more progress there than they did with Nola.

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Published Nov 20, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the St. Louis Cardinals for FanNation's "Inside The Cardinals" on Sports Illustrated. Before starting "Inside The Cardinals", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." After a few months as the top Major League Baseball site in the program, Neville sought expansion and pitched "Inside The Cardinals," one of the newest additions to FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group. The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Cardinals" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu