Cardinals News and Notes: Heyward, Gyorko, and more touching of the hot stove

A common comment that Viva El Birdos has received of late, via Twitter and Facebook and presumably other forms of social media (rumors of the VEB LinkedIn and Tinder profiles are greatly exaggerated), is that there has been too much focus on Jason Heyward. That sure, Jason Heyward is good, but there are hundreds of other baseball players out there to discuss. And this is a fair point. And now that Heyward is no longer a Cardinal, you can be assured that the volume of Jason Heyward content will decline on this site.

Anyway, here's a bunch of stuff about Jason Heyward. And others!

Jason Heyward odds and ends

• Nick Lampe covered a favorite pet topic of mine: evaluating last November's trade of Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden. As soon as Heyward signed with the Cubs, I assumed somebody would write this piece, and I'm glad Nick did it as well as he did it. The trade was re-maligned on Friday since Heyward didn't sign with the Cardinals, but the deal was made with 2015 in mind, and in 2015, Heyward was an integral part of a team that may not have won its division without him. And yet, it's impossible to ignore the return garnered by the Atlanta Braves last week for Miller from the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's a fascinating topic to discuss for years to come. But for now...

Speculation over future Cardinals targets

• Craig Edwards compiled a list of potential free agent targets for the Cardinals in a post-Heyward, post-Lackey world. Several of the alternatives have been covered on the site already, such as Orioles first baseman Chris Davis, Royals outfielder Alex Gordon, Giants starter Mike Leake, Hiroshima Toyo Carp import Kenta Maeda, and many, many others that you can learn about by clicking the aforementioned link. It's as simple as that! Say what you will about whether or not the Cardinals should have signed Heyward, but his departure actually creates an odd sense of hopefulness. When Albert Pujols left in 2011, all of a sudden a world of possibilities opened. Reality became a fantasy league, a universe of infinite possibilities where anything can happen without the strict constraints that come from spending $20 million-plus a season on a player.
• The reality of the situation, however, may be a little bit less exciting, as Ben Markham wrote about GM John Mozeliak's comments that the Cardinals' off-season "is not going to have that dynamic signing" that the club attempted to make with Jason Heyward and David Price. Coupled with Mo's comments to KMOX yesterday regarding being happy with the current crop of Cardinals outfielders, it seems the club may be disinclined to make any major moves, but an important reminder is the following: It is December 15. And although the Cardinals may have missed out already on the biggest of big names (David Price, Zack Greinke, Jason Heyward), there is plenty of time for prices to fall on current free agents. Basically, what I'm saying is I have no idea what's going on and you should keep up on the craziness of the hot stove season by reading every single piece on Viva El Birdos thousands of times, just to make sure you don't miss a detail.

Welcome to St. Louis, Jedd Gyorko

• Unofficial VEB housewarming committee chairperson Lil Scooter rolled out the welcome mat for the Padre-turned-Cardinal. It's great to see Scoot finally, after all this time, have a favorite player.