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Mike Leake, St. Louis Cardinals
Five Years, $80 million
Mutual option for 2021
While this may not jump off the page as a big offseason acquisition, Leake saved the St. Louis Cardinals a lot of money from the top arms of the offseason, like Johnny Cueto, David Price or Zack Greinke. He just turned 28-years old in November and has 172 starts under his belt. The Cardinals get a very reliable arm who has thrown at least 190 innings the last three years. There isn’t an opt-out in his contract, so if he continues to pitch as he has been, this will be a nice offseason pick-up. If he had an opt-out he could maybe pull a Johnny Cueto in a year or two. Cueto has an opt-out after 2017, that basically lets him bolt from the San Francisco Giants if he has a good 2016 and 2017, so he can get more money elsewhere or make the Giants pay him more.
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