The St. Louis Cardinals still have the resources and flexibility to improve multiple areas of the 2016 team thanks to their failure to land David Price.

The St. Louis Cardinals did not land prized pitching free agent David Price and all of Cardinals Nation should breathe a gigantic sigh of relief because of it. Missing Price just might be the best thing to happen to the team since it let Albert Pujols go.

USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale indicated that it was close, though. From one of his stories today about the Price signing:

David Price teed off Tuesday morning at a Wally Joyner’s charity golf tournament in Las Vegas believing he would be spending the next Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports seven years pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals. By the time he left the event hosted by former major leaguer Wally Joyner in Long Beach, Calif., Price had agreed to become a member of the Boston Red Sox with a deal that will make him the richest pitcher in history. Price has agreed to a seven-year, $217 million contract with the Red Sox, a person directly involved in the negotiations told USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity since the deal won’t become official until Price passes a physical Thursday evening. Price is expected to be introduced at a press conference on Friday in Boston.

The deal could boil down to a 3-year, $90 million deal, because Price can opt out and seek more money at that point. But I’m guessing he won’t. Not with all that money on the table and his skills in rapid decline by then. Rapid decline? Yes. Check out this tweet from WFAN’s Sweeny Murti this afternoon:

Just to chew on: Sabathia and Price had roughly same IP over first 7 full seasons. But Price is 3 years older than CC was at that point. — Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) December 1, 2015

Yikes. A few days ago I wrote about Sabathia’s current 8-year, $192 million deal with the New York Yankees. How that deal can actually be viewed as a good one in this day and age because the lefthander was actually worth it for half the deal, which started in 2009. Now? Not so much.

Like Yankees GM Brian Cashman before him, Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski is paying millions for an ace pitcher’s past. Not his present. Not his future. Who knows how long Price will be right? One thing that’s almost for certain is that St. Louis Cardinals fans will look back on this day with relief.

It could have been the St. Louis Cardinals who overpaid for a pitcher. According to Nightengale, it nearly was.