The St. Louis Cardinals renegotiated their TV contract to stay with FanDuel Sports Midwest. Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray are remaining, but Nolan Arenado may not. Ken Boyer is up for the Hall of Fame again. We remember Cardinals who previously won Silver Slugger Awards.
Position change for Contreras
Multiple media sources reported from this past week’s General Manager Meetings that the St. Louis Cardinals have informed Willson Contreras that they want him to switch positions from catcher to first base in 2025.
President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said he discussed this change of position with Contreras and he was open to the idea. The switch is ostensibly for multiple purposes, first to give playing opportunities to two younger catchers, and second to safeguard the health of Contreras, who missed significant time in 2024 with two serious injuries.
The plan is for Contreras to man first base plus designated hitter at other times during the season. Contreras hasn’t played first base since limited action with the 2019 Cubs.
St. Louis signed the 32-year-old to a five-year, $87.5 million contract in 2022 to be the starting catcher following the retirement of Yadier Molina. Since the Cardinals announced they would be reducing the major league payroll in 2025 to focus more resources on improving and updating the Player Development system, the rumors were that Contreras might be a trade candidate.
However, the reports out of the GM Meetings were that Mozeliak discussed the idea of a trade with Contreras, who has full no-trade protection in his contract, and he expressed a desire to remain with the Cardinals.
With Contreras moving to first base to replace free agent Paul Goldschmidt, the catching duties will be assumed by Iván Herrera, 24, and Pedro Pagés, 26.
Cardinals reach new deal with Diamond Sports Group
On Thursday, the Cardinals announced via a press release that the organization has reached a multiyear deal with Diamond Sports Group to retain the TV rights to broadcast Cardinals games. Diamond is the parent company for the former Bally Sports Network, now rebranded as FanDuel Sports Network.
Diamond Sports Group is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. As part of those proceedings the company had previously indicated they would discontinue their current contracts with all teams with which they had 2025 deals in place except for the Atlanta Braves and the Miam Marlins, unless the remaining teams renegotiated their contracts with the Group.
The Cardinals indeed did just that, allowing the FanDuel Sports Midwest Network to continue broadcasting Cardinals games. Per Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch, the team took a 23% reduction or about $17.3 million from their 2025 rights fees previously contracted to be $75 million.
The agreement also contains a direct-to-consumer TV service for Cardinals fans regardless of location without blackouts. This direct-to-consumer opportunity will provide streaming via a subscription service to the FanDuel Sports Network app without requiring the consumer to have a cable provider.
Those consumers who watch games on cable TV will be able to continue that option or stream on the app by authenticating their cable TV account as they have done in the past.
The price and details about the subscription service will be provided later, prior to the start of the 2025 season.
Classic Era Hall of Fame Ballot includes former Cardinal All-Star and MVP
The National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was announced on Monday and contained eight names for consideration by the Classic Era Committee. It covers the period prior to 1980 and includes the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues.
One of the eight players on the ballot is a former Cardinal, Ken Boyer. Boyer, a Missouri native, was signed by St. Louis in 1949. He made his major league debut in 1955 and during his 11 seasons with the club, Boyer was an 11-time All Star, the NL MVP in 1964, and won five Gold Glove Awards as a third baseman. He led the majors in RBI in 1964 and played a pivotal role in the Cardinals World Series Championship that year.
Boyer was first on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1975 and was dropped from the ballot in 1979 after receiving less than 5% of the vote for five consecutive years. Boyer, Curt Flood and Cubs third baseman Ron Santo were restored to the ballot in 1985. Boyer peaked at 25.5% of the vote in 1989 before again falling off the ballot.
Boyer has been a candidate multiple times since, on the Veterans Committee ballot for three years and on the Golden Era ballot. He fell short every time.
Boyer passed away from cancer at the age of 51 in 1982. The results of the vote will be announced on December 8 at 6:30 pm CT on MLB Network.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
Derrick Goold of the Post Dispatch reported that the Cardinals are expected to gauge trade interest for third baseman Nolan Arenado and what they might get in a return. Goold states that if there are any compelling opportunities, Mozeliak will talk to Arenado about his interest in waiving his no-trade clause for a specific trade location.
There had been speculation that the Cardinals might shop some of their high dollar players this offseason to reduce the major league payroll in preparation to spend more resources on an upgrade of the Player Development system.
Multiple reports coming out of last week’s GM Meetings indicate that two players, Contreras and pitcher Sonny Gray, have expressed a desire to remain in St. Louis and may be held out of any trade discussions. It appears that is not the case for Arenado.
Transactions
There are no transactions to report.
Injury Report
There are no new injuries to report.
Looking Ahead
The offseason is underway. The month of November is when free agency begins and rosters are adjusted for the upcoming season. It is also the month for the annual awards to be given out.
The winners of the Gold Glove Awards, the first to be announced, were disclosed last week. The Cardinals had three finalists for Gold Gloves, Masyn Winn at shortstop, Nolan Arenado at third base, and Brendan Donovan at the utility position. None of the three were winners.
Other awards will be given out in the coming weeks. Dates for other key awards this month:
- November 11 – Finalists (top three finishers) for Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award, and Most Valuable Player by league are announced.
- November 12 – Winners of the Silver Slugger Awards are announced.
- November 18-21 – Winners of the Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award and MVP are announced.
Other key dates in November:
- November 19 –Decisions to accept or reject qualifying offers and filing of Reserve Lists (adding eligible minor leaguers to 40-man rosters)
- November 22 – Non-tender deadline.
As expected, the Cardinals did not make the qualifying offer to any of their free agents.
Teams must add back to the 40-man roster players who ended the season on the 60-day injured list by November 19. Only one player, Drew Rom, needs to be added back. Once that occurs, the 40-man roster will be at 36 players.
Decisions as to players to be added to the roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft will be made by November 19.
On or before November 22, the team must decide what players, if any, will not be tendered contracts for the 2025 season. This group includes both arbitration eligible and pre-arb players. There have been no indications at this time if any players will be non-tendered.
Blast from the Past
The offseason is upon us. November is when the winners of the major awards are announced, beginning with the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
This week’s Blast from the Past begins a series that will showcase the offseason awards, specifically the history of Cardinals players who have won the various awards over their history.
The focus of this installment is the Silver Slugger Awards, to be given out on Tuesday, November 12. We begin with a brief history of the award and follow with a list of Cardinals who have won the award.
The Silver Slugger is for the best offensive player at each position in each league. The outfield awards are given to three outfielders respective of position. The awards include pitchers, designated hitter and a utility player. It is voted upon by major league coaches and managers. The award has been given out annually since 1980.
The voters consider offensive statistics such as batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage and includes the “general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value”.
30 Silver Slugger Awards have been won by 23 different Cardinals since 1980. The following lists the players who have won the award, beginning with those with more than one and in descending order.
Albert Pujols – Pujols won six (6) Silver Slugger Awards at three different positions. He won four (4) at the first base position in the years 2004, and 2008-2010. He won the award at third base in 2001, and in the outfield in 2003.
Edgar Renteria – Renteria received three (3) Silver Slugger Awards, all at shortstop, in 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Bob Forsch – Forsch earned two (2) Silver Sluggers as a pitcher, in 1980 and 1987.
Jack Clark – Clark won two (2) Silver Sluggers at first base in 1985 and 1987.
George Hendrick – Hendrick received two (2) Silver Slugger Awards at two different positions. He won in the outfield in 1980 and at first base in 1983.
Jason Marquis and Adam Wainwright – Pitchers Marquis and Wainwright each took home the award, in 2005 and 2017, respectively.
Ted Simmons and Yadier Molina – The two catchers each earned the award once, Simmons in 1980 and Molina in 2013.
Keith Hernandez, Mark McGwire, and Paul Goldschmidt – Each of these first baseman have won one (1) Silver Slugger as a Cardinal. Hernandez’ award was in 1980, McGwire in 1998 and Goldschmidt in 2022.
Matt Carpenter – Carpenter is the only Cardinal to receive the Silver Slugger at second base. He was honored in 2013.
Scott Rolen and Nolan Arenado –The two third basemen have taken the award as a Cardinal once each, Rolen in 2002 and Arenado in 2022.
Ozzie Smith – Smith took the Silver Slugger at shortstop in 1987.
Willie McGee, Jim Edmonds, Ryan Ludwick, and Matt Holliday – The outfielders each received the Silver Slugger once, McGee in 1985, Edmonds in 2004, Ludwick in 2008 and Holliday in 2010.
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