David Freese Needs Long-Term Contract From St. Louis Cardinals

There are fans of the St. Louis Cardinals who will never forget the name David Freese due to his postseason heroics. The team and Freese settled on a $3.15 million salary for 2013 this week, but St. Louis needs to take care of their third basemen on a long-term basis. Freese had 20 home runs last season and knocked in 79 runs while hitting near .300. While Freese isn’t the best defender, his offense should get him a much higher salary than what he has been getting, or will get in 2013.

Freese made just $508,000 in 2012 before the big jump for this coming season. I would think that St. Louis has to come to the table with a four or five-year offer worth $50 million and try to lock Freese down, even though he can’t be a free agent until 2016. There is really no excuse for this not to happen yet because how many third basemen out there have hit home runs in the World Series, in the most clutch situations out there? I can’t think of any current players like that, and that should mean something.

Freese took a long time to make it to the big leagues and will be 30 years old this year, but the St. Louis lineup has taken a step back with departures over the past two seasons. Freese is going to need to hit another 20 home runs this coming season, and St. Louis has to do something for Freese now before his value grows even more.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.