<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Left-hander Steven Matz and the St. Louis Cardinals are in agreement on a four-year, $44 million contract, pending physical, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN. Matz is coming off a career-best season and has a chance to get to $48 million and will receive a signing bonus.</p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1463379363534045186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

WHOA

That’s a LOT for Matz, given his injury history.

Shit, I’m surprised Mo didn’t pay double that.

I'm OK with the Matz signing if that's not Mo's only move for the rotation.

If it is, Cardinals are legit back in the same situation as 2021, except with Metz instead of Martinez.

They need to go after strike throwers, let the defense you have elevate their profiles...not sure Matz is that type. If he's healthy it's not bad value, I would prefer a two year deal for a guy like this, but you probably don't get him at 11 million per if you don't go 4.

Matz is a ground ball pitcher. That plays well with the Cardinals defense

Yep, if he’s healthy, not a horrible deal. All these FA deals in baseball are usually over paying deals. But with his history of injuries, could be wasted money. Stays healthy, could be a good innings eater.

You see the market for pitching this year?

This is a lot more reasonable than I thought. Contrast that to 5/$80 he gave the righty version of Matz in Mike Leake.

I think they could coax a few 2.5-3 WAR season out of him and about a 3.7 ERA over 165 IP. That’s not a bad return on that investment.

The IPs are what concerns me most. I really don’t understand how a pitcher with his profile can’t average 6 IP/start.

He always has some kind of nagging injury.

Yeah I figured he’d probably end up at about 3/$39.

So 4/$44 is racking on a pretty cheap year at the end of where I figured he’d be.

The bar for success on this deal is 7 combined WAR, IMO. Get a 3 WAR season, a 2.5 season, probably a largely lost season in there somewhere and maybe another 1-2 win season with some short stints on the IL to wrap it up.

But apart from last season he’s been a steady 30 starts/season. And his numbers are pretty consistent across the board.

He’s actually been weirdly consistent if you ignore the COVID season. I’d have never expected that from him.

Cardinals took DeSclafani's deal and added 1 year to knock off $1M AAV.

Cohen and the Mets are melting down about the Matz signing, all because they expected to be able to match the deal. Pretty hilarious stuff. Cohen just not putting together how his behavior could negatively impact his team's reputation and is encountering a rare problem in his life that money isn't solving.

Yes, he throws a lot of sinkers...I was talking about his strike percentage, which was at 55% the last I checked...MLB average is usually around 62-65% for all pitchers.

Alright, you guys let us that don't follow as closely know about this lockout that is being planned to start Wednesday. Is this going to be a short lockout or a lengthy one?