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Just thinking out loud here……
Is it a given that Goldy will be gone at some point in time this year? Either at the Trade Deadline or at season’s end via Free Agency?
And if so, who is going to man the 1stbase position for the Redbirds in 2025? Some have speculated it might be Jordan Walker but I hope and pray that never happens. What about Burleson as the full time 1stbaseman?
And what about Free Agency? Pete Alonso is a free agent. So is Christian Walker. I’m not sure who else might be available but it does seem logical that we will need to sign another bat if we are going to contend.
Thoughts posters?
r/Esteemed Rat
Options in order of my liking(I don’t see Alonso happening):
1) Contreras (Herrera/Pages catchers)
2) Burleson/Baker platoon
3) Burleson
4) Gorman (Edman at 2B)
5) Donovan
6) Carpenter? I hope notCarpenter was the primary 1B’man in ’17. Other names that filled in at that position between the Pujols and Goldschmidt eras are Martinez, Reynolds, Adams and Craig. At any rate, 1B’man have been a mainstay with the Cardinals during my time as a fan with that position producing 6 NL MVP’s. Hopefully I’ll see a couple more.
Yes, I think Goldschmidt is gone at the end of the year. I was hoping he would have enough value to bring multiple prospects back at the trade deadline (assuming the Cardinals are sellers), but now it’s looking like he will be here until the end of the year.
My order would be:
1) Burleson
2) GormanIf we end up going with either Burleson or Gorman then that means we still need another bat in the lineup.
Where will that bat come from?
If it’s Gorman, that means Edman is likely playing 2B and one of Scott, Siani, or Carlson is starting in CF. Walker in RF and Noot in LF. So Walker and Edman are the extra bats.
It it’s Burleson, then it’s the same except Edman has to fight with the other 3 above for CF. Probably someone gets traded away in that scenario.
Why not use Edman as a Super Utility and either Donovan or Fermin as utlity?
Then you can give people days of rest, and you aren’t doing these silly Sunday lineups and forfeiting 16% of the games in a season.
Before this season’s batting funk, our Walker would have been a logical candidate. The other Walker(Christian) is too old, Alonso too expensive and Gorman too short(6’1) for my liking at the position. I think Hoskins from Milwaukee can opt out after this season, so he might be a nice 3-4 year stopgap.
The first thing to agree upon is that BDW does not like to spend money. The second thing is he did not sign off on Goldy because of the hot glove at 1B. It was all about a premier power bat in the middle of the lineup, and the inability to produce that in house and supply it to the ML lineup for cheap.
I feel 100% sure BDW will want to fill the role in house if possible, and will spend at least one or two years trying out in house options before looking at costly options.
Someone mentioned Gorman being 6’1″. The physical requirement of height and reach for a 1B is not to be swept under the rug. Tall with reach is better. Goldy is 6’3″. Walker and Baker exceed that. Burleson is 6’2″, Contreras 6’1″. Walker and Baker are the best fit physically.
Moving a lineup regular to 1B creates a hole to be filled. Unless there is a compelling candidate knocking on the door from the minors or the bench, then that is a negative. I hope they do not move Contreras off catcher and I do not think they will. He is perfectly adequate there, and neither Herrera more Pages are able to contain the running game. The org is so thin everywhere, it would be difficult to move Gorman, as Donovan is needed in another role. If Edman returns it could loosen things up, but he is getting expensive, and we have already agreed BDW does not like to spend money.
The most likely candidates seem to be Burleson, Walker and Baker. Baker is unproven in ML, and the FO passed on a golden opportunity to take an extended look last year. That is either organizational incompetence, or they had already decided he is not a potential ML regular. He is not kicking down the door this year either.
Walker floundered in ML, and we are awaiting his return to try again. Some think he is an outfielder long term and some don’t. Physically he is ideal for 1B, and that is my preferred option, but I think the org will keep him in the OF for the foreseeable future.
Burleson is experiencing a hot streak after an extended period of unimpressive results. Whether he has figured out ML pitching remains to be seen. He hit well in AAA and I am thinking about hopping on the bandwagon. The org, and Oli, seem to like what they see. He is not ideal physically for 1B, and is know to not be a great glove man, but how he would look at 1B day in, day out is unknown, which brings me to an important point. Burleson is not the go to guy when Goldsxhmidt gets his days off. He takes a turn there, the same as other guys. He is by no means being ‘looked at’, although the opportunity to look at him there exists. They seem to be passing on that like they passed on the chance to look at Baker.
So there doesn’t seem to be a good answer, and if the org has a favorite Goldy replacement scenario, they are not tipping their hand. Maybe that means they are not looking at replacing him.
Bling,
Burleson is also 6’2″. He has played 27 games at 1B for the Cardinals, vs 65 in the outfield. He also played 67 games at 1B in college, vs 54 in the outfield.
As for Baker, he didn’t hit in the majors last year, though that is in part due to sporadic at-bats. He also did not hit in spring training this year when he was among the leaders in at bats. Last year was the only year he made contact at a good rate in the minors.
I do like the idea of Hoskins, but he is on a two-year $34 million deal right now (with opt-out), and I am he will surely want more than $17 million per year if he opts out.
We don’t know how Burleson would look defensively day in, day out, and the fact is the Cardinals have shown no interest in finding out. They could put him there whenever Goldy is not there, but they have not done so. That fact simply cannot be brushed aside. They are not looking at Burleson as a first baseman, like it or not. He just takes a turn there sometimes when Goldy is off the same as others take a turn there. We all have our favorite scenario, mine is Walker even though he hasn’t been able to stay on the roster, but they are all problematic and the org has shown no particular interest in any of them.
Walker has never played 1B and he was bad at 3B. I do not expect Walker to learn to play 1B at the major league level.
This year, they have Carpenter on the roster. Of course he is going to be the 1B on the days when Goldy is DH. Otherwise he would never play.
They know all these guys better than we do, and they are not grooming anyone. But I can’t believe they are going to go out and hire a premium middle of the order bat without trying to do it on the cheap. Maybe they have a sly plan, or maybe they are just bungling the whole situation.
Doesn’t seem like there’s an aging star player with a year or two left on their deal who can be had for prospects…is there? Because that surely would be in this FO’s wheelhouse.
Jordan Walker has the hands of a brick layer. If you put him at 1st base, well, it may very well turn into a comedy show. I doubt that he himself would be willing to play 1stbase.
If Arenado is traded then it’s logical to assume Gorman becomes the full time 3rdbaseman. That leaves Donovan or perhaps Edman at 2ndbase.
But, as I’ve said before, they will need a big bat in the lineup if they are going to compete. The question is – WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO GET THAT BIG BAT???
My hope was draft Kurtz or Caglianone and in majors mid to late 2026. Doubt that happens. Burleson seems like best option as of now.
How do you know Walker was bad at 3B?
Compare his defensive metrics at 3B in the minors to Juan Yepez’.
Yepez was so bad the Cardinals moved him off 3B after one year. It took them two years to move Walker off 3B, but prospect pedigree is a thing.
It doesn’t appear that Goldy will be back next year unless the Cards go on a magical run.
My idea for a replacement would be a Burly/Baker combo. Contreras is also an option but can Herrera really be an everyday catcher defensively? His offesne is coming along but I’m not sure about the defense.
Another option would be an outsider like Pete Alonso but that would probably be cost prohibitive.
I think we should be having the same discussion about Arenado. He is not productive enough to justify his salary in my opinion. The Dodgers or some other big market club would probably take him. Our infield in 2025 could be:
Gorman 3B
Winn SS
Donovan 2B
Burly/Baker 1B
Contreras/Herrera CJordan Walker is a big bat. Whether he plays in the OF or at 1B, he’s going to be a fixture in the lineup for a number of
years.And we know that how?????
Pretty decent rookie season. Then he fizzled out. How do we know he’s going to be a big bat for us?
We thought the following were going to be very good big league players for us as well:
Flaherty
Hudson
Reyes
Hicks
Carlson
Nootbaar
Edman
O’NeillI’m still waiting for consistent results from some of them. The rest are gone.
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