Buster Olney doesn't think so. A snippet:
But the Cardinals already have enormous contract obligations on the books. Albert Pujols will make $16 million in salary next year, and Chris Carpenter, the leading contender for the NL Cy Young Award, is set to make $14.5 million. Kyle Lohse will make $8.9 million, Yadier Molina will earn $4.25 million, and Adam Wainwright will make $4.6 million. Ryan Franklin and Trever Miller just signed contract extensions that will cost St. Louis about $5 million next year. That's $55 million for seven players, and if DeRosa gets an extension of something in the range of $5 million-$6 million and St. Louis elects to keep Ryan Ludwick through arbitration, that'll take the payroll to somewhere in the area of $70 million.
And if Holliday costs something around $12 million to $15 million next season, that would put the Cardinals in a position in which they'd have to approach or surpass $100 million in payroll to keep him.
Nothing in the Cardinals' recent history tells us they will do that. We'll see.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
