It is very very obvious that St. Louis is not a destination for quality free agents any longer. There are numerous reasons for that and have been discussed on here before. The high crime rate, Ferguson, deteriorating infrastructure, plus the Cubs are the shiny new object in the NL Central. Chicago has its share of big city problems too but I guess Epstein is a better salesman than our front office.
Our only chance to get quality players from the outside are through trades with players without NTC’s.