I agree with gscottar that it’s possible to be semi competitive and get build for the future. One or two year, lower dollar deals for guys that might pop won’t break the bank or hinder the future development. Anyone who thinks that the Cards actually need to run a sub $100M payroll to build for the future is just doing BDW’s bidding. Trading away all the vets and starting from nothing will do nothing to accelerate the rebuild, but it will fatten Dewitt’s wallet.
I’ll add that the Cards have long been averse to the type of deals that championship teams make regularly. There was one off-season where they looked primed to sign David Price and/or Jason Heyward, but other than that they’ve sat on the sidelines. Sign 1-2 year guys or sign stars, which seems to be a good philosophy for consistently winning teams. The big mistake was signing guys to 4-5 year deals that had little to no upside. Adding up the Fowlers and Cecils and Leakes, you could have had a Scherzer or Harper to actually help the team.