St. Louis Blues: St. Louis Not An Attractive Market For Free Agents

By Todd Panula |

ST. LOUIS, MO - NOVEMBER 04: St. Louis downtown skyline, as photographed from I-55, in St. Louis, Missouri on NOVEMBER 04, 2012. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

The St. Louis Blues have money to spend and assets to trade. The problem is that getting players here in the first place feels like it is getting harder.

The St. Louis Blues have a conundrum on their hands this offseason. They have freedom, but it may lead to nothing in the player market. They have money to spend and assets to trade, but it might mean nothing.

The problem the Blues have is the same the St. Louis Cardinals have. St. Louis’ remaining two franchises are both looking to win and spending a decent amount of money to do so.

However, they both lack a win at all costs mentality. So, their market, or city, is actually holding them back.

Any of us that have lived here long enough know too well that we all complain about this or that. However, we all have a certain amount of love for St. Louis as well. It is a big enough city to give you the advantages of having pro sports teams and big city vibe. It is a small enough town that you don’t have horrendous traffic issues like Atlanta, Chicago or Los Angeles or the other problems the mega-cities have.

However, perception is a big problem. St. Louis has been in the thick of things that do not paint our city in a very good light.

There were the riots in Ferguson. Whether you agree with the politics of it or not, having that happen in your city does not look good to people you’re trying to recruit here.

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The Rams disingenuously bolted for Los Angeles. Then the city voted against a stadium that would have locked an already all-but-guaranteed MLS franchise to St. Louis. Those circumstances painted the city as small time as well.

Now, both the Cardinals and Blues are in the same boat. While one has championship pedigree and the other does not, they face the same issues.

Both teams have money and, for the most part, are willing to spend. Fans can debate that if they wish, but both teams have spent close to the maximum they can or are allowed to. We may not agree with their moves, but despite opinion to the contrary, the front offices and GM’s of both franchises are doing their best to have winning teams.

The problem is that the best players out there are seemingly unavailable to either team. The Cardinals are in need of a big bat and impact player, such as Manny Machado or Bryce Harper. The likelihood either end up with the Birds on Bat uniform is slim to none.

The Cardinals are not going to give up all their prospects for Machado as a rental and Harper has many more attractive options that can pay him as much or more. The same is true of the Blues.

They need a center and John Tavares is available. The Blues have a lot of money to spend this offseason – anywhere from $12-18 million, depending on the cap.

However, what is going to lure Tavares here? The Blues can’t really pay more than anyone. St. Louis is not that attractive as a market. The Blues have talented players, but it would take some good salesmanship by Doug Armstrong to convince Tavares his arrival will lead to a Stanley Cup.

That last point circles back to the Cardinals as well. They have a decent team, but you can’t really convince players they are a World Series team right now. So, why take just the money if you think you can have the money and win somewhere else?

Now, the Tavares thing may boil down to simple math. The New York Islanders can actually pay him more, so many signs are pointing to him returning. If that is the case, they are not close to winning either, so it would be just about the money.

The Cardinals used to have the pedigree to attract players. Outside of the Yankees, or perhaps Lakers and Celtics, that really doesn’t matter to players these days.

From a fan perspective, it is irritating to be so in the middle. We are big enough to have the money to spend, but not big enough to lure the players. While we’ve sort of known this reality for awhile, it sucks to be smacked in the face with it so much in the last few years.

The Cardinals still get the occasional big name, but they’ve rarely gotten them through free agency. The same is true of the Blues.

The Blues traded for Brett Hull, Keith Tkachuk and even Al MacInnis. The Cardinals traded for Mark McGwire and Matt Holliday and then drafted Albert Pujols.

The last big signings for the Cardinals would either be Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran or Chris Carpenter. Do we really regard those as the cream of their free agent crops though? They were great once signed, but teams were not dying to bring them in. Berkman and Beltran were thought to be washed up and Carpenter was not Carpenter until his St. Louis days. The last free agent signing of note for the Note was actually Paul Stastny and he came here, partly, because he lived here as a child.

That’s the problem. Once you get them here, players for both baseball and hockey (especially hockey) tend to stay and live out their days here. Getting them here in the first place is the issue. McGwire has publicly said he would likely not have signed with the Cardinals if he was not traded here. He got to fall in love with the city and people, though, and could not resist coming back.

It just feels like there are things stacked against the team at the wrong time and not in their favor at the wrong time. If either the Blues or Cardinals have money to spend, they are not attractive enough to lure players away from other cities. If they have teams on the cusp of winning, they often lack the necessary funds to sign these big-name players.

Round and round we go and coming in second place is all we know. The more we try, the more we figure trades are the way to go.

Next: Blues Fans Should Prepare For Summer Disappointment, In Case

Fans often have unrealistic expectations of free agency or trades. They think GM’s are not doing their job if they don’t land every big name out there and give up a box of rocks in return.

Putting that aside, it is not a great feeling to know you can’t land the big fish, no matter how hard you try. So, we can all get our hopes up for Machado or Harper or Tavares or whomever. History tells us that none of that is going to happen and it won’t be because the teams were trying to be cheap.

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