{"id":26855,"date":"2015-12-23T09:05:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/leake-agrees-to-80m-deal-with-cardinals\/"},"modified":"2015-12-23T09:05:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:05:18","slug":"leake-agrees-to-80m-deal-with-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/leake-agrees-to-80m-deal-with-cardinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Leake agrees to $80M deal with Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS<\/strong> \u2014 Minutes after his contract with the St. Louis Cardinals was announced, Mike Leake was looking ahead to rivalry games against the Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly,\u201d he said Tuesday, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind taking them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake and the Cardinals agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract, a move the Cardinals hope boosts their chances to win a fourth straight NL Central title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we make decisions, it is about performance,\u201d general manager John Mozeliak said. \u201cWe heard nothing but positives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake described the Cardinals as a \u201cdynasty.\u201d Before last season, St. Louis had been to the NL Championship Series or deeper four consecutive years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the offseason is unfolding, different options pop up,\u201d Mozeliak said. \u201cWhen this did, we decided it made a lot of sense. I do think it makes the Cardinals stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake gets $12 million next year, $15 million in 2017, $17 million in 2018, $16 million in 2019 and $15 million in 2020. The deal includes an $18 million mutual option for 2021 with a $5 million buyout. Leake also receives a full no-trade provision.<\/p>\n

During his news conference, Leake raised a No. 8 jersey, the number he wore at Arizona State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for some place to call home,\u201d Leake said. \u201cThey were willing to work with us and we were willing to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Leake was traded during last season, the Cardinals will not have to forfeit a compensatory draft pick. They\u2019ve traded a number of young pitching prospects the past few seasons, including Shelby Miller, Tyrell Jenkins and Rob Kaminsky.<\/p>\n

A 28-year-old right-hander, Leake is 64-52 with a 3.88 ERA in six big league seasons. He was 11-10 with a 3.70 ERA for Cincinnati and San Francisco last season, totaling 30 starts and 190 innings.<\/p>\n

Ace Adam Wainwright, who returned late in the season from a torn left Achilles tendon, heads a rotation that includes Carlos Martinez, who was sidelined in September by a shoulder injury but is anticipated to be ready for spring training. Jaime Garcia and Michael Wacha also are expected to start, and lefties Marco Gonzales, Tyler Lyons and Tim Cooney could earn rotation spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can be the best,\u201d Leake said. \u201cIf they name me the No. 5 guy, that\u2019s fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis failed in efforts earlier this offseason to retain outfielder Jason Heyward and add pitcher David Price.<\/p>\n

Mozeliak said talks with Leake began about a week-and-a-half ago. Leake had put a priority on Arizona, where he lives, but the Diamondbacks signed Zack Greinke and acquired Shelby Miller from Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Arizona got out of the picture I was open to whatever team I felt fit my needs the best,\u201d Leake said. \u201cComing here has turned into my new No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake is durable, ranking fifth in innings in the National League during his six seasons. He was second in the NL in pitches thrown per inning, at 14.3, always remembering advice from his father when he was six or seven to attack the hitters.<\/p>\n

Staying in the NL was appealing also because he\u2019s a career .212 hitter with six homers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say it was something we thought was attractive,\u201d Mozeliak said. \u201cMost of our pitchers are not very comfortable hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leake\u2019s trade last July was part of a dismantling of much of the Reds\u2019 core, including third baseman Todd Frazier and pitcher Johnny Cueto, and they have attempted to trade closer Aroldis Chapman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did have a locker room full of talented players and we were never able to piece it together in the right way,\u201d Leake said. \u201cSeasons like that are never fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 Minutes after his contract with the St. Louis Cardinals was announced, Mike Leake was looking ahead to rivalry games against the Chicago Cubs. \u201cHonestly,\u201d he said Tuesday, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind taking them down.\u201d Leake and the Cardinals agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract, a move the Cardinals hope boosts their chances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-26855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26855"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}