Cardinals' John Mozeliak explains spending $23,000,000 on veteran pitchers: "We want to go in with a little bit more certainty"

The St. Louis Cardinals are putting all their efforts in an area they feel heavily impacted their performance last season. With the signings of veteran starters Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, they have bolstered their starting rotation.

Both Indiana natives have some sort of familiarity with playing in St. Louis. Kyle Gibson played for the University of Missouri whereas Lance Lynn played seven seasons with the team from 2011 to 2017. The latter was also part of their 2011 World Series-winning roster.

The pitching staff was heavily criticized for its inability to deliver as the Cards slumped to a 71-91 finishing last in their division for the first time in 33 years. They came 24th in the MLB with an ERA of 4.79 and currently have only two starters signed to them – Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz.

President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said that the club is looking to add more experience amongst their starting pitching ranks, a departure from their strategy of last year:

“The difference between this offseason and what we did last year, when we gave a lot of the younger players opportunity ... is we want to go in with a little bit more certainty and have that veteran presence,” Mozeliak said on Tuesday at Busch Stadium.

“What we did with Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson is that we brought two guys in that know how to do it, what to do and why they are doing it."

Cardinals still expected to splash money on other names

The St. Louis Cardinals don't seem to be done for this current offseason with the pitching staff, as they are linked to a number of free agents like Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They were also last related to signing another veteran Sonny Gray. Mozeliak also stated that the team is yet to weigh its trade options if the price tag for the free agents exceed their limits.