The 1911 Cardinals won the pennant at 103-49 without Wagner but lost the World Series to the Athletics in five games. The eleven league championships have been split between three teams: Cardinals 6, Pirates 3, and Athletics 2. The Cardinals and Athletics have played the last three World Series, and the Athletics show no signs of going away with Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson, Frank Baker, and Jack Barry - all under 25 years old and with 4-5 years of control remaining. Their pitching is mostly young and quite good too.
Wagner is set to return for a final season in St. Louis at age 37. He is still projected to be a 5-star player although his injury rating is now "fragile". I have three other star players over age 34, and I desperately need to accelerate my rebuilding project by bringing in a young superstar. There is no such thing in the free agent market with a nine-year service requirement, so I went back to the trade market. Naturally, I checked on Cobb again, who is now 25 years old and was just signed to a reasonable two-year extension after hitting .388 last season.
The price has changed a bit. They still want Wagner and the catcher Jay Clarke, who is no longer my starter after having lost his job to the NL ROY Ivey Wingo. But they now will take three veteran players instead of three prospects, making the deal almost a no-brainer. The four players including Clarke generated 7 WAR last year and Wagner should conservatively add 6. Even accounting for some decline among the players they acquire, the trade is still pretty even if you compare it to Cobb's 9 WAR and 4 more (1 each) for the replacement players on my squad. No player in the deal is signed or controlled for more than two years, but I have the resources to keep Cobb in St. Louis for the rest of his career.
So Ty Cobb is now joining the Cardinals for the 1912 season, and I am off to pursue Joe Tinker in the free agent market as the replacement for Wagner. I still have three aging veterans in key roles but I can't fix everything in one offseason and they should be good for at least one more year.
