- This topic has 74 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Okay, look, it’s obvious we don’t have anybody that can hit. At least not worth a hoot. And I don’t believe there is anybody in the farm system that is a big time hitter in the making.
And since we literally have nothing to trade our only hope for a big time bat is free agency. So, my question is, who are the big bats that will be free agents this coming winter? Presently I only know of three.
Pete Alonso
Kyle Tucker
Luis Arraez (not a power bat but very good average)Anybody else?
r/Esteemed Rat
I don’t think there’s any chance at all that they’ll aquire an impact bat via free agency. He’ll have to come from within the Cardinal farm system as did Musial and Pujols. I’d say you can expect to see him in about 50 years.
I would expect the Cardinals Free Agent signings in advance of the 2026 season to be similar in quality and cost to those made by Tampa Bay over the past several years. I would be shocked to see moves similar to those made by Herzog when he took over. No big names or contracts thru Free Agency. I expect modest signings, most likely short-term deals to improve the roster. They will trade pieces off the current roster, but I do not expect any big returns.
I don’t see where we have a position available for a big bat. 2B belongs to Saggese, and eventually Weatherholt. 3B is going to be aplit between Arenado and Donovan. LF is apparently going to Herrera and probably Burleson, CF goes to VS II and RF goes to Walker until Josh Baez forces his way up to St. Louis. Siani is OPSing close to .700 now. Find a place for hin at least as a
fourth or fifth outfielder. His deffenae elite. I don’t foresee any big moves this coming offseason except for Gorman getting traded for pitching and nobody knows how that will turn oit. IMO, our best chance for offensive improvement is Bernal (now the Cardinals 3rd best prospect), a consistently improving Josh Baez, and of course, Weatherholt.Siani is OPSing close to .700 now.
I always factor a loss of at least 150 pts of OPS from AAA to MLB.
I agree with LA here. .700 at AAA is .500-.550 at MLB. That’s just unplayable. Victor Scott has been terrible over the past couple months but he’s still above that level. His defense is a notch down from Siani but close.
As for offense next season, if they are still around, at least two of Walker, Gorman, Nootbaar, Burleson, and Wetherholt needs to OPS over .800 and Contreras and Herrera need to reproduce this year’s results in order to drive our offense. That’s a lot to ask. I guess if 4 of the 5 of them got north of .750, that could work too. That may be possible but odds are low.
Whatever happens. Please. No Hampson next year. He, unfortunately, could not hit an elephant’s ass with a handful of ricl. He does seem to be a really nice guy, though.
No Hampson you say? For many Cardinal fans he’s become the de facto face of the franchise. Losing him could quite possibly be as tragic as losing the current Redbird manager.
I got to thinking about the OPS comments above. Here is the positional OPS (starting with C and ending with DH) of the top scoring MLB offense, 7th ranked, 14th ranked (Cardinals) and 21st ranked for measure:
#1- .828, .823, .714, .572, .713, .722, .834, .913, .744 (.766 total)
#7- .648, .722, .817, .852, .794, .654, .625, .866, .831 (.760 total)
#14- .688, .800, .729, .668, .744, .700, .595, .699, .702 (.707 total)
#21- .598, .656, .711, .658, .761, .763, .618, .661, .814 (.695 total)
So it appears from this year’s data that good to great offenses can get by with a black hole or a couple of dud positions, assuming there are 3-4 studs or a couple of super performers in the lineup (as #1 has the terrible slot but also some star power and average or above everywhere else, and #7 has some duds but is very good in a lot of other positions). On the contrary, the bottom third lineup has one pretty good player, a couple of above average guys and the rest are below average to well below.
The Cards lineup is comprised of one good hitter and a bunch of of average bats, a couple little below average and one black hole. They could improve the offense in a number of ways, but to bump into the solid to good category, they really need another 1-2 .800 OPS slots, or an .800 and take that .500s slot up into the .700s along with a little jump at C and 3B. I think finding a platoon bat for RF (Walker just can’t hit lefties and never has) or the OF in general plus a bump in the IF (hello, Wetherholt) and no more Pages at C (Crooks has to be ready next year) would make a difference, but that won’t solve the pitching problem that looms much larger. I’m advocating spending at least 80/20 or even 90/10 of available funds on the pitching staff. The defense is fine and the offense could be there, but you won’t win anything giving up runs like they have been.
Any lineup composed from the current roster suffers from an absense of teeth in the sense that not one member carries with him a bat that could be termed consistently dangerous. Practically all of the teams close to or at the top of the respective divisions have at least 2 or 3 hitters in their lineups that strike genuine fear into the opposition. The Dodgers, Mets, Padres, Phillies and even the Cubbies have consecutive hitters in their lineups that subject opposing pitchers to protracted stretches of stressful work. No such thing in StL.
I think finding a platoon bat for RF (Walker just can’t hit lefties and never has) or the OF in general
Walker has done nothing to deserve the RF position in any of the three years he has been given it, and he certainly hasn’t earned it for next year.
He should have one option year remaining, and if so, they need to hide him in the minors.
If Herrera keeps running a .863 OPS, he will be in the feared hitters category. Contreras and Donovan fall into the respected hitters category. Maybe Burly too, but he swings at so many pitches off the plate that I don’t think good pitchers get too concerned about him. I don’t think anyone else is a concern for opposing pitchers at all right now – average or mostly below.
Contreras has never come anywhere close to driving in 100 runs. It’s my best guess that Donovan or Burleson will never come as close to 100 RBI’s as has Contreras. They’re both decent hitters, but no manager’s afraid to work to them. I agree on your point about Herrera and the OPS, but the reality is he’s well shy of yet collecting 600 Big League PA’s in his 4 year career. And even if Ivan’s OPS holds up, it’s my view that a lineup needs at least 2 or 3 bats in the heart of the order that are worthy of pitching around.
They have had a problem for about the last 5 years or so of having 3 or 4 easy outs in the lineup, until they address this they are not going anywhere…only way that would work is if you had lights out starting pitching which I don’t see.
Also the Cardinals are 21st in MLB in stolen bases w/ 62, which is pretty hard to believe b/c they have 3 or 4 guys that can run fairly well….they just don’t for some reason don’t run or put runners in motion, I am putting that on the Manager’s philosophy. Hopefully that will change when he is shown the door at the end of the year.
I agree 1TD. We need to turn two of our .650 OPS guys into .800+ OPS guys. Specifically, we need far better results out of 3B and RF and moderately better results out of C and CF.
Gorman improves on Arenado from the bat side but the defensive downgrade makes this a worthless trade off. Either Donovan or Wetherholt needs to man the hot corner next season. Maybe Blaze Jordan adds some short side platoon at bats there. Saggese makes a good utility who can step in for injuries when needed. That fixes our infield. It could actually be really good.
At C, a Crooks/Pages 70/30 platoon split is probably our best answer. Defensively, they would be excellent. Offensively, probably below average. But still better than what we have today with Pages playing 80% of the time or better. The platoon would work quite nicely.
The bullpen is fine. One good veteran reliever signing and we’re good. We do have to determine a closer but on-field results should get us there.
The OF and starting pitching are both disastrous. Gray, Liberatore, Pallante, and McGreevey are all fine. But every one of them might be a “4” next season. And there’s no one else ready now. Unless we upgrade one of them or sign a true #1, we will continue to have issues with blown up games from time to time. In the OF, Nootbaar is average. We have a hitting problem in CF. And we have a real hitting problem with Walker in RF. And we have a non outfielder in Burleson playing the OF badly because there’s no room for him on the roster. And now we’re looking to do the same with Herrera. I hope we can find a way to restructure in the offseason.
Thay had 2 bats that pushed 100 or more runs across HP and tatered up 30 or more times in ’22, Ghost. The bat with Pujols’ name on it also warranted proper respect from the opposition that season. In any case, it’s precisely as you mentioned in the contest of, unless you have the sort of rotation that can consistently neutralize the opposing offense, it’s my view that a lineup needs at least 2 slots that contain a genuine monster in order for a team to thrive.
What did Ohtani and Trout ever win with the Angels?
“you won’t win anything giving up runs like they have been”
There is zero point zero (0.0) chance the Cardinals are spending big in free agency this winter. 2026 is going to be another runway year and another year of waiting to get Gray, Nado, and Contreras off the books. We might sign a few makeshift guys to one year deals but that will be it.
The Twins just ate 33mil on Correa and had a major deadline selloff. Another Central team “resets” their player budget.
I think Bloom is looking at replacing the fading Noot with Herrera and replacing Arenado/Gorman with Wetherholt at 3rd. Nothing says it will work, but it is a reasonable attempt to make the team on the field better with what we’ve got. Catcher is a gaping hole, and I think if Crooks has a good spring he could get his chance. I have less than zero confidence in any catcher developed in the Cardinals system, but again it is a reasonable attempt with what we’ve got. I’m pretty sure Scott and Walker will be the other OFers and Winn, Donovan and Contreras the IFers. Saggese and Burly might be bench guys or might not.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.