9. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals SP, free agent after 2013. Of course he'd be a lot higher on this list had he been healthy now. Instead, he's out for the year after blowing out his elbow. The good news is that 90 percent of pitchers come back strong from Tommy John surgery, which is why competing executives seem to think the Cardinals will pick up Wainwright's unusual $21 million, two-year option. That's only the first hurdle. The Albert Pujols negotiations are the main order of business for St.Louis now, and the outcome could affect everything else. But Cardinals people seem to love Wainwright, so it might not stop with the two-year option.
Deal or no deal. Deal.
26. Yadier Molina, Cardinals C, free agent after 2012. There's a team option for $7 million next year (with a $750,000 buyout), but the Cardinals may as well pick that up now because you know they will. The game's best defensive catcher is so indispensable that GM John Mozeliak said shortly after ace pitcher Adam Wainwright was lost for the year that Molina is the player they could least afford to lose (of course, they have another key player by the name of Pujols). That said, Molina is a thick-bodied catcher, so you wonder whether he could do better than a four-year deal.
Deal or no deal: deal.
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