Time For A Deadline?

The Holliday negotiations drag on.  Right now, you could flip a coin on which will happen first, Matt Holilday signing or Mark McGwire having a press conference.  But don't hold your breath on either.

Scott Boras doesn't seem to be in any hurry to finalize a deal.  Either he continues to wait for another team or two to get into the mix or he's thinking that the Cardinals will blink in this game of chicken, raising the stakes so as to make sure Holliday doesn't get away.

However, I'm not sure that John Mozeliak is going to play that game and definitely know that he shouldn't.  Mo can read as well as we can and he can see that Boston pulled their offer after signing John Lackey, the Mets are heavily in on Jason Bay, the Yankees got Nick Johnson and cut ties with Johnny Damon (for the most part) and, as far as has been reported, the Angels haven't reported any interested.  (Which is good, because Angels and Holliday in this time of the year would really strain our capacity for pun tolerance.)

Now, there's obviously information we don't know, being on the outside looking in.  But from this perspective, it seems to me that it's really where Mo needs to say, "OK, this offer is good for another two days.  After that, we'll either move on or drop our price."

Before the offseason started, Mozeliak said that he wouldn't be handcuffed by the Holliday negotiations.  Yet second-hand info seems to indicate the Cards are in a holding pattern waiting on this to get cleared up.

It's possible that Mo is supremely confident that Holliday is going to resign and at the Cards terms, which is completely possible given the lack of other suitors.  That could be why they are sitting and waiting, letting Boras run around doing his tricks while they watch impassively.  (Kinda like that scene with Indiana Jones shooting the sword-waver coming at him.)

If not, though, and if Plan B trickles away while they focus on Holliday, this could be a very cold winter for Big Mo.


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