Cardinals Winter Warm-Up – In Their Words: Monday, 1/20/25

photo: Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

The 2025 St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up charity event at Busch Stadium and Ballpark Village concluded on a chilly Monday with the final group of presentations and autograph signings.

The limited schedule of final day presentations in the main tent included a double-header DeWitt session with Chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. and President Bill DeWitt III and a separate session with manager Oliver Marmol.

Autograph sessions with three current Cardinals players were scheduled on Monday: Miles Mikolas, Lars Nootbaar and Willson Contreras. However, Mikolas was a late scratch from the event.

Among Cardinals alumni signing on Monday were Trevor Rosenthal, Andy Benes, Alan Benes and Matt Adams. Tony La Russa was unable to attend.

Typically, before or after they sign, the individuals meet with team physicians and are brought to the media area for a question-and-answer session.

Following are my notes from selected interviews held during the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up on Monday, January 20, 2025. Along with my summary is the audio and/or video (thanks to Kyle Reis for the latter) for those who want to listen to or watch the full content. There is 1 1/4 hours of it!

Oliver Marmol (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

Oliver Marmol (27:11)

Players are the ones on the field. Lots of questions about reset. Players pretty confident, good energy. Compete, win, make their mark.

Assuming Arenado will be here. Gorman is ready for anything.

Brant Brown brings energy for everyone. Speaks to different batters differently based on need. Jordan took to it. Get back to comfort level and build from it.

Will need to have patience with young players. Not light switch that can be turned off and on.

Players want to know you care about them. I love that kid (Winn). Loving guys away from field enables tough conversations about on-field things.

It is a good thing the team on the field will be different. Players encouraged by clarity of the reset.

The studiousness of catchers earned respect of the pitchers.

Siani was not on radar in spring training 2024. Longer runway given (due to injuries to others) and provided better offense before injury. If his playing time had been cut off, we wouldn’t have seen his emergence.

Burleson’s underlying metrics looked good even when his numbers sucked.

Being fun and good are a good combination for Nootbaar. Toolsy player. Count on his energy.

Health issues could pop up with starters the first week of camp. Will have Liberatore stretched out and go from there. Zack Thompson fits into this bucket, too.

Likes the way Mathews thinks and approaches the game. Doesn’t care what others think. Sure of himself.

Bloom cares. Has a plan forward. Collaborative meetings with he, Mo and Marmol. Also collab with minors, sharing programs.

Contreras told him about staying, “This is how much I care about this team.” Will split between first base and designated hitter. Spent several days in Jupiter with Stubby Clapp and Jose Oquendo working at first base.

Quoted Gray who said new direction “was needed”.

Pallante is confident. Proved he belongs. Showed him confidence by not pulling him too early.

There are times when you want to develop the bench, but you have to pick spots. First time up, Baker was nervous. Second time, he just took an at-bat.

Hungry. Have opportunity to shock a lot of people.

Build pen by having a strategy to move them from low leverage to tie game in sixth to seventh, etc. Help them process pressure.

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Video:

Lars Nootbaar (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

Lars Nootbaar (17:09)

My role with Nolan Arenado is to be his friend. He is working and looks good.

Ensure health. Trained differently. Check boxes for nutrition, having body in right place, agility, speed, explosiveness. Be a kid again and stop running into walls.

Being yourself is best way to help team. Guys can see through if you are not. Makes it tough to jell. Don’t be different guy every day. Be consistent.

On youth, excited, looking forward to it. I’m only 27. Haven’t experienced a lot of playoffs.

To achieve potential, do work, stay on field. That is when best results happen. Understand when to have limitations without taking away aggression.

Young players similar in age, interests and get along. No hiding anymore. We have to be ready.

Nolan and Goldy took a lot on the chin. I didn’t step up. I am ok now, with Pedro, Donnie and others.

Brownie (Brant Brown) has been great. He is a hitting rat (highest praise). Sent him a lot of video. He knows a lot I don’t.

In 2021-2022, had Jeff Albert. Used to go at it. It was great as a young guy. Turner (Ward) was the assistant so that transition was easy. Haven’t met Brown yet, but he already knows me.

Gray and Contreras staying means everything. Was getting mixed signals late in season so asked Contreras. He said he wants to be here. We will still lean on them as they’ve had peaks and valleys in careers.

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Willson Contreras (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

Willson Contreras (14:15)

Two factors in staying.

  1. First thing I said when I signed here is that I wanted to see the team better than when I came.
  2. I love my teammates. Stick with them. Would be easy (to leave), coward. I like challenges.

On moving to first base, knew it would come. Looking to stay healthy. Thought about it and it would create a better roster. Need Pages’ defense and Herrera’s offense.

Oli does a great job communicating with guys.

I love challenges. People doubting us as a team. Know team can turn around and play deep into October.

Working at first base with Clapp and Oquendo. Not difficult, but not easy. I am a good athlete.

Try to be best player. Don’t want to step on toes of catchers, but will help.

Minors are important to have World Series team. Homegrown talent.

Challenge to stay and prove people wrong. Team needs to have right mindset to go day-to-day.

This year will be better. Will have more time to spend with position players. I will talk most on team. Will talk to others on mindset. Really excited.

Brother (William) said that I cannot be mean anymore. Will have to be nice to everybody at first base. Told me I was among best catchers for a long time.

Pretty sure I am emergency catcher. Ordered equipment. Will join catchers in mound conferences with pitcher as the first baseman. Need to keep mind in game. After 12 years catching, think of the game as a catcher and pitcher.

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Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III (30:57)

Jr. Always been draft and develop guy. Path since bought team. Time to build next championship team.

Do not want to lose money on a yearly basis. Have had years they’ve made and lost money. Team debt has gone up. Stadium renovation. Baseball is not an easy business. Have done good job pulling money back into product. Be realistic about where you are in cycle.

Effort to make best team we have. Higher draft picks and loss of them hurt. System is as good as it has been for a while. Happy with fifth draft pick. Complained about system last year.

III. Said payroll is down. Focus on controllables. Chaim building farm system. Might have one of largest 3-4 spending pools in entire draft.

Making changes to keep fan experience top priority. Messaging consistent with where we are. Term “rebuild” does not apply. Need to set foundation guys for future. Have success, then add incremental. Hope fans stay with us.

Jr. Evaluate payroll year to year. Big markets can put money in every year. Mid markets cannot. It’s a revenue game, then spend more money. Not starting from scratch. Sacrificed draft picks in past (to sign free agents). Cannot continue.

Marmol came up in system. Done good job.

They do what is best for team. Fans have opinions. They are knowledgeable. Some want to spend. Not poised to compete. Find balance to have opportunity to have competitive team each year.

III. Watching innovation across the league. Realign staff in business functions to better identify customers. Customized experience. AI tools. Anuk Karunaratne fresh perspective from Toronto.

Chaim calibrating to other teams. How elite farm system works.

Jr. It is a risk business. No magic success formula. Won 83 games (in 2024) and that worked pretty well once before.

Don’t need to make further trades if no Arenado trade. Prefer to go with younger players. Arenado prefers to be with team with top chance of winning the championship.

Hard to say what strategy will be for next year (2026). Confident that if team progresses, fans will come.

III. Interested in subscriber numbers for direct to consumer FanDuel Sports offering. Large area outside core with access to multiple teams. Lot of them couldn’t get games before.

Jr. (asked if they waited too long). No. Had Goldy and Arenado. Now get draft choices back.

Player development investment greater than increased staffing. Also infrastructure, technology.

III. Jupiter complex enhancements. Weight room, meeting rooms, dining rooms, new systems for hitting and pitching.

Jr. Dad had saying on desk, “Get the players and the rest will take care of itself.” Now added, “and develop them”. We were a little behind and have fixed it.

III. 2026 ticket sales are TBD. Grace period for renewals still open. Core group is back. Hope to achieve better numbers. Working to clean up secondary market. Surplus last year. Reduce that to protect season ticket holders.

Direct to consumer product price not locked down but expect it to be around $20 per month.

Jr. If current process plays out, payroll will be back to before. (Said traditionally in bottom third of MLB top 10.)

III. Goal is to have down cycles few and far between. Need to have cost-controlled players to supplement. Trying to build a 20-year success model again. Don’t know if they can do but are trying.

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Earlier related articles

Cardinals Winter Warm-Up – In Their Words: Sunday, 1/19/25

Cardinals Winter Warm-Up – In Their Words: Saturday, 1/18/25

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