Editor's note: Here is our original coverage of the trade that sent J.D. Drew and Eli Marrero to the Braves for pitchers Jason Marquis, Adam Wainwright and Ray King on Dec. 13, 2003. Columnist Bernie Miklasz hoped that Adam Wainwright would flourish once Dave Duncan and Tony La Russa were gone.
THE CARDINALS WERE about to draft J.D. Drew. Before handing Drew a super-sized signing bonus, team chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. called team scout Fred McAllister for a final report.
"Best natural hitter I've ever seen," McAllister told DeWitt. Better than Mays? Mantle? Aaron? Musial?
"Yes," McAllister said.
Drew could never live up to his advance billing in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. He was a good hitter with a low tolerance for pain. He never made it to an All-Star Game but did make many trips to the disabled list. Teammates always wondered if the withdrawn Drew enjoyed playing the game.
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Drew is gone now, along with another enigma, Eli Marrero, in a five-player swap with Atlanta. The Cardinals received a pitching infusion, with the Braves donating promising young starter Jason Marquis, top prospect Adam Wainwright and sturdy lefty reliever Ray King.
Marrero drove in only 187 runs in six-plus seasons and has a hideous career on-base percentage of .295. There's no reason to fret over his departure. The only risk in this transaction is that J.D. Drew finally will be aroused to compete. If so, he will give the Braves the incredible season the Cardinals waited for in vain.
The prediction here is that Drew will have a huge 2004 for the Braves. Drew is due to become a free agent after the season, and his agent, Scott Boras, undoubtedly will have Drew revved up for a salary drive.
The Cardinals, who already had invested more than $15 million in Drew, couldn't afford to gamble additional substantial revenue on his ambivalence and fragility. General manager Walt Jocketty had to clear salary before going to market to fill his team's long list of needs. Even if Drew wins the Triple Crown next season, we must remember: The Cardinals wouldn't have been able to re-sign him after next season. Drew was gone, anyway. So at least they got something for him now.
Marquis, 25, throws hard and was miscast as a reliever most of last season. But as a fill-in starter for the Braves over the past three seasons, his ERA was a respectable 4.17. He's capable of being very good. This is another project for pitching coach Dave Duncan, who couldn't fix Brett Tomko last season.
Yes, it makes me nervous that the Braves gave up on Marquis; manager Bobby Cox and pitching coach Leo Mazzone have an eye for evaluating pitchers. And if they're parting with Marquis, it makes me wonder: What's wrong with him? Then again, perhaps Marquis will turn out to be another Jason Schmidt. (The Braves traded him away, too.)
King is tough and nasty vs. lefthanded hitters, but here's one alarming statistic: King's ERA after the All-Star break last season was 5.70. Is he wearing down because of too much work? And that's always a concern because La Russa overuses certain relievers.
Wainwright is a legitimately bright prospect, and a potential steal for the Cardinals. But if Duncan and La Russa are around beyond the 2004 season it may not matter, because they can't develop young pitchers. Perhaps young Wainwright will be nurtured and saved by the next regime.
This trade already is stirring lively debate among Cardinals fans. I've heard from fans who love it, and fans who hate it, and both sides are making valid points.
But we really can't evaluate this deal completely until we see Parts 2 and 3. By moving Drew and Marrero, Jocketty has money available to pursue a No. 3 starting pitcher and a rightfielder.
Part 2: To upgrade the starting rotation, do the Cardinals now have enough cash to sign Sidney Ponson or Greg Maddux? Or will they settle for Jeff Suppan or Kenny Rogers?
Part 3: Do the Cardinals have the funds to go after Jose Cruz Jr., Jose Guillen or Reggie Sanders to play right field?
Jocketty's first trade of the winter was just the opening move in a complex sequence.
The top 10 Cardinal trades of the DeWitt era
Top 10 Cards trades of the DeWitt era
HONORABLE MENTIONS
• General manager Walt Jocketty started the Cardinals' transformation into the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ A's by acquiring starting pitcher Todd Stottlemyre and Dennis Eckersley from Oakland. Stottlemyre came in a Jan. 9, 1996, trade for Allen Battle, Carl Dale, Bret Wagner and Jay Witasick; Eckersley arrived via a Feb. 3, 1996, swap for Steve Montgomery. Those pitchers helped manager Tony La Russa revive a moribund team.
• Jocketty's successor, John Mozeliak, delivered a July 27, 2011, season-saver that subtracted moping outfielder Colby Rasmus (above) and added pitchers Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski (along with outfielder Corey Patterson). That deal improved team chemistry, shored up the starting rotation, bolstered the bullpen and helped propel the Cardinals on a World Series championship run.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
10. DAVID FREESE (2007)
Mozeliak made a deft move early in his general manager tenure, sending aging outfielder Jim Edmonds to the San Diego Padres for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½an David Freese on Dec. 14, 2007 — when Freese was just a late-blooming third base prospect. Freese reached the big leagues in 2009 and went on to become the 2011 World Series MVP . . . and, along the way, a singing pitchman for Imo's Pizza.
Edmonds bounced from the Padres to the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds after that trade before returning to town as an outstanding analyst for Fox Sports Midwest.
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
9. JOHN LACKEY (2014)
Any time a GM can dump a bad contract and help his team with the same trade, he produces a win-win scenario. Mozeliak did just that by moving first baseman/outfielder Allen Craig and pitcher Joe Kelly to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher John Lackey and pitching prospect Corey Littrell on July 31, 2014. Craig never regained his stroke after suffering foot injuries, so the final three years (and $26.5 million) of his contract became a burden to the Red Sox.
Kelly has been a starter/reliever swingman when healthy for Boston, but Lackey was a key starter on two Cardinals playoff teams. In 2015 he was 13-10 with a 2.77 ERA before moving on to the Chicago Cubs as a free agent.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
8. WOODY WILLIAMS (2001)
Outfielder Ray Lankford was a really good player in a mostly bad era of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ baseball. But he did his part to trigger a turnaround by heading to the Padres in a Aug. 2, 2001, trade for hard-nosed pitcher Woody Williams -- who went 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 11 starts to help the Cardinals sprint into the playoffs that summer.
Williams won 38 games during the next three seasons, earning an All-Star invite in 2003 and helping the 2004 squad win the National League pennant. As for Lankford, a hamstring injury wiped him out in 2003 and he finished his career with a '04 comeback with the Cardinals.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
7. DARRYL KILE (1999)
Jocketty had a knack for finding worthy reclamation projects for pitching coach Dave Duncan. He rescued Darryl Kile from Denver's Mile High launching pad on Nov. 16, 1999, acquiring him and pitchers Dave Veres and Luther Hackman for Manny Aybar, Brent Butler, Rick Croushore and Jose Jimenez.
Kile won 20 games in 2000 while assuming a leadership role on the pitching staff. He went 16-11 with a 3.09 ERA in 2001 before his untimely death rocked the franchise during the '02 season. Veres had a good run as the team's closer and Hackman had two decent seasons as a reliever and spot starter.
Post-Dispatch photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.
6. EDGAR RENTERIA (1998)
The shortstop position has been a revolving door for much of the DeWitt Era in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. But the Cardinals got six great seasons from Edgar Renteria thanks to Jocketty's Dec. 14, 1998, trade that secured him from the Marlins for pitchers Braden Looper and Armando Almanza and infielder Pablo Ozuna.
Renteria won two Silver Slugger awards as a Cardinal and three Gold Gloves. He was a three-time All-Star here and he played on four postseason teams, including the '04 pennant winner. Alas, he departed for the Boston Red Sox as a free agent after that season and the revolving door at shortstop resumed spinning.Â
Associated Press photo by James A. Finley
5. SCOTT ROLEN (2002)
Scott Rolen was The Man in Philadelphia. But he became The Unhappy Man in 2002 and Jocketty landed him in a July 29 trade that sent infielder Placido Polanco, reliever Mike Timlin and starting pitcher Bud Smith to the Phillies.
Rolen eventually became disenchanted here, too, but not before enjoying great success as part of the "MV3" with Edmonds and Albert Pujols. He won four Gold Gloves as a Cardinal (counting his first half-season), played on two NL pennant winners and helped power the unlikely 2006 World Championship run. His relationship with La Russa became increasingly contentious, though, leading to Rolen's trade to Toronto before the 2008 season.
Associated Press photo by Tom Gannam
4. MATT HOLLIDAY (2009)
La Russa was steamed when Mozeliak traded away Chris Duncan, son of pitching coach Dave Duncan, on July 22, 2009. But he cheered up two days later when Mozeliak sent first baseman Brett Wallace, pitcher Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson to the financially troubled Oakland A's for slugging outfielder Matt Holliday. Although Holliday was playing under an expiring contract, the Cardinals hoped to convince him to stick around. They did -- and Holliday made that seven-year, $120 million contract pay off. He hit 20 or more homers six times and drove in 90-plus runs four times.
Holliday played on a half-dozen postseason teams, winning two National League pennants and a World Series championship before heading off to the New York Yankees as a free agent.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
3. JIM EDMONDS (2000)
What were the Angels thinking? Jocketty paid a modest price on March 23, 2000 -- flash-in-the-pan pitcher Kent Bottenfield and second baseman Adam Kennedy -- to free Jim Edmonds from a stale environment in Anaheim. Jimmy Ballgame flourished in baseball-mad ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, captivating fans with his showmanship and clutch play.
Edmonds won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards, went to three All-Star Games and won a Silver Slugger Award during his tenure here. He helped lead the Cardinals to six postseason appearances, winning two pennants and a World Series along the way. In short, he became one of the franchise's all-time greats.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by Chris Lee
2. MARK McGWIRE (1997)
Jocketty and La Russa got the DeWitt Era rolling by winning the 1996 Central Division title and getting the Cardinals back to the postseason for the first time since 1987. But the whole ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ A's thing reached the next level when Jocketty sent Eric Ludwick, T. . Mathews and Blake Stein to the financially troubled A's for Mark McGwire on July 31, 1997.
McGwiremania ensued. The muscle man hammered 135 homers in a two-season span. In the wake of the latest work stoppage, McGwire and Sammy Sosa energized the baseball industry with their home-run derby. While many fans look back on this steroid-fueled era with regret and anger, McGwiremania had a hugely positive impact on this franchise.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by J.B. Forbes
1. ADAM WAINWRIGHT (2003)
Low-key outfielder J.D. Drew enjoyed a very nice big league career, hitting .278 over 1,566 games. But he wasn't a great fit with La Russa and his grizzled veterans. So Jocketty sent him and star-crossed catcher/outfielder Eli Marrero to the Atlanta Braves for starting pitcher Jason Marquis, reliever Ray King and a pitching prospect named Adam Wainwright on December 13, 2003.
Marquis won 42 games over a three-year span, King served as a terrific set-up man on two playoff teams and Wainwright, well, he became one of the top MLB starting pitchers of his era. He has won 145 games since breaking in during the 2005 season and his relief heroics helped win the 2006 World Championship.
This was the ultimate trade, one that yielded near-term and long-term benefits.Â
Post-Dispatch photo by J.B. Forbes
