"We're Gonna Have Fun"--Fowler

With a smile befitting his new free agent contract, Dexter Fowler was officially introduced as a St. Louis Cardinal on Friday.

“You know it was an honor just to even be considered to be in the Cardinals organization,” began Fowler. “I’ve been playing against them for eight years now and they always come out fighting. They’re always fighting and then playing as a rival being with the Cubs, and playing them however many times we play a year, you see them and it’s always good that a winning team wants you. It is definitely humbling.”

The five year deal is worth a reported $82.5 million dollars and includes full no trade protection for Fowler.

“Certainly, one of the things we wanted to address was athleticism,” stated St. Louis Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak. “We wanted to address someone that could hit at the top of the order–if possible–to allow us to give us flexibility with Carpenter, and we were also looking to find someone who that was extremely competent on the basepaths and so I think we were able to accomplish that. But Mr. Fowler is much more than that. There’s always the baseball angle in all decisions, but there’s also the human element of that. One of the things that I think we are so excited about Dexter is he is a student of the game.

“You look at his career path and you look at the last three years and how he’s matured and evolved at the Major League level, it’s something that we valued,” continued Mozeliak. “We also think about him as a leader and more importantly, he wants to lead. He wants to have a voice in that clubhouse. When you think back to some of the things we’ve always talked about and trying to change the culture of what we have going on–we like what we have, but now we like it better and we think he’s only going to enhance that.”

The 30-year old Fowler was an All-Star in centerfield for the Chicago Cubs last season and brings a career .366 on-base percentage to the top of the Cardinals lineup. He’s also hit 72 triples and stolen 127 bases over the last nine seasons.

“You obviously have a great presence at the top of the lineup and a lot of things that we talked about with the athleticism and the excitement of bringing in a player that has all the physical attributes but all those others–those ones behind the scenes that we put a lot of faith into,” said St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny. “I think it’s been said well, this is the guy we were hoping to be sitting up here with. Just like when we talked a couple nights ago on the phone, couldn’t explain to him how excited we are for how well we believe he’s going to fit into our lineup and our clubhouse.”

Before last season, Fowler chose to return to Chicago on a one-year deal rather than sign a multi-year contract elsewhere. The gamble on himself paid off with this larger deal.

“I believe that God has a plan for me,” answered Fowler. “If it wasn’t in the cards, it wasn’t in the cards. I know how hard I’ve worked. If something freakish happened, then it happened and it just wasn’t meant to be, there’s something else down the road that He wants me to pursue. Fortunately, it worked out. I’m a Cardinal now and I couldn’t be happier.”

So aside from the financial aspect of the deal, why did Fowler choose St. Louis over any other potential teams?

“This is a baseball city,” he answered. “You can go other places and you don’t see–I witnessed that on the plane, that’s a whole nother story but yeah, this is definitely a baseball city. The fans, every time you come here, you see red everywhere. That’s awesome to see. Even there’s Cardinals fans–we were going through our parade and you see Cardinals fans out there. Just being a part of that and their winning culture–they’ve won World Series and they’re poised to be back in the World Series and win again. That was a big part of my decision as well.”

The plane referred to above by Fowler was his Southwest Airlines flight to St. Louis on Thursday. Recognized by fans at the airport, the fact he was headed to the Gateway city was soon all over social media.

“A flight attendant came up to me, then this guy comes–thank goodness for WiFi on the plane–they came to me and he was like ‘is this true?’ and I was like uhhhhh, I don’t know and I just went back to sleep. No, it was definitely funny and it was definitely one for the books.”

That joy and enthusiasm is something Fowler intends to carry over to the Cardinals clubhouse–which has previously been contrasted in style to that of Chicago and other teams.

“I wouldn’t say it’s overblown, but it’s not huge for me,” explained Fowler. “I feel like for me, if I go in a clubhouse, we’re gonna have fun. Even if the clubhouse is not having fun–we’re going to have fun. Win, lose, or draw let’s have fun because I believe that’s going to make us better. I feel like I can do that in a clubhouse, so either way I know that we’ll get some of the guys out of their shells–if they are in their shells.”

photo credits: Bill Greenblatt/UPI