Cardinals sign Drew VerHagen to two year, $5.5 million deal

When MLB free agency opened back up last night, the flurry of activity that fans had long waited for did not really happen. Front offices are scrambling just to figure out if their budgets have changed, what players’ current asks are, and just trying to get their feet under them. As a result, the night went by without so much as completing existing agreements that were in the process before the lockout began.

However, there is only a couple of day before Spring Training is set to start and teams are going to have to get their guys into camp. Fortunately, lunchtime on Friday brought a transaction although it isn’t a sexy move to be sure

If you had Drew VerHagen as the first post lockout free agent signee...well, if you placed money on it, you are likely very rich now. That said, this is still an interesting move for the Cardinals. VerHagen wasn’t a particularly great starter or reliever during his time with the Tigers, but his time in Japan saw him perform reasonably well with back to back sub-4 ERA seasons with a pretty decent workload. For a pretty modest investment, the Cardinals get a pitcher on a no risk contract and VerHagen gets another shot at the major leagues.